tv studies - exam 2
Chapter 2: Audiences
Intro:
TV relies heavily on audiences to keep going and to make profits, not just the program & content; audiences are what’s sold to advertisers
Audience studies began prior to tv
A prehistory of tv studies’ engagement with audiences
Audience studies rooted in social sciences & mass communication; began around WWII as propagandic messages were sent out to rally people
Audiences sometimes changed their interpretation of messages from the intended messages to justify their own desires
“uses and gratifications,” whereby researchers gradually began to examine what uses audiences had for media, and how they used the media to gratify personal interests and desires
The CCCS intervention:
Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) emerged in 1970s
the Centre was greatly influenced by semiology and its attempts to examine popular culture as a language
Hall noted that “there is no necessary correspondence between encoding and decoding,” meaning that what is put “into” a text would never necessarily determine what was taken “out” of it
also examined punk and other musical subcultures, and young girls’ use of magazines and fashion.6 However, given the nationalizing force and mandate of the BBC, and of television in general in 1970s Britain
led to a broader understanding of audience engagement with media in everyday contexts, moving beyond experimental settings to explore how viewing occurs within the family home.
This research opened up new avenues in television studies, particularly with gender and media consumption, as scholars examined how television technologies influenced family dynamics and power structures
illustrates the evolution of audience research from quantitative studies to a more nuanced understanding of how audiences engage with and interpret media.
The active audience:
In the 1980s, audience research and theory in television studies flourished, opening doors to more fruitful analysis of audiences
Most notably, audience research was taken up with particular relish by feminist media scholars, who saw in it a way to test both their own suspicions of seemingly anti-feminist genres, and widespread vilification and ridicule of women's genres in general.
Lots of focus on soap operas and portrayal of women on those shows
Fostered discussions about kids & teens tv shows/audiences and how they often were reduced to blank slates
John Fiske played a pivotal role in championing the idea of “popular culture” as an active process of meaning-making, where audiences repurpose and transform mass culture to create their own interpretations and pleasures.
argued that audiences were not passive consumers but actively shaped cultural meanings.
Emphasized polysemic nature of tv
Early fan studies
Fans, particularly women, were seen as co-producers of culture, creating fan fiction, art, and other works to reimagine narratives, often inserting women's concerns into male-dominated stories
Jenkins and scholars like Camille Bacon-Smith and Constance Penley emphasized that fan culture was communal, with shared interpretations emerging through fan conferences, fanzines, and fan fiction circulation.
Jenkins argued that fans were both consumers and producers, actively altering texts to suit their own needs, while Penley highlighted fans as the most critical and knowledgeable viewers
Scholars also explored how fan communities operate within a "shadow cultural economy," where fans gain cultural capital within their own hierarchies, distinct from mainstream media and societal structures
Television Talk:
A critique of post-Encoding/Decoding audience studies was that while they were sometimes called “audience ethnography,” they often lacked the depth of traditional anthropological methods
Researchers relied heavily on focus groups or interviews, which placed too much emphasis on audiences’ self-interpretation, rather than a cultural focus
some researchers, like David Morley in Family Television and Janice Radway, sought to observe audiences in everyday settings, but was difficult bc of funding issues
Audiences were previously observed in “artificial” settings rather than natural, “nomadic” settings which people normally watch in
an exception was Marie Gillespie’s study of Punjabi teens in London, which took place over three years and recorded their discussions of TV in everyday contexts, demonstrating how media consumption interacts with identity formation
Stewart Hoover and Helen Wood adopted creative methodologies to study how families discuss media or how people respond to television in the moment.
Others, like S. Elizabeth Bird, benefited from the rise of the internet, which facilitated the study of online fan communities and their media discussions in natural environments
While internet research has become the dominant method for studying audiences, it presents challenges in terms of context and ethical concerns, but it also offers potential
for more richly contextualized studies of media consumption and identity performance
The audience in the machine:
boundaries between audiences, programs, and the television industry have blurred due to the rise of internet-distributed and mobile media. Audiences are no longer passive consumers but active participants, engaging in activities like creating memes, fan art, and mash-ups, and discussing shows on social media platforms.
producers now eager to engage and even capitalize on them in what Henry Jenkins calls the "affective economy"
However, this shift has also sparked concerns that fans are being exploited as unpaid laborers who add value to media texts while being selectively incorporated by the industry
Scholars like Matt Hills and Axel Bruns have explored the complexities of this relationship, introducing terms like "produser" to describe the merging roles of producer and user.
In the era of streaming platforms and social media, audience surveillance has also increased.
While television audiences were once studied through ratings systems like Nielsen, streaming services now collect vast amounts of data from every user, often keeping this information proprietary.
shift has created new challenges for audience studies, as producers now have unprecedented access to audience behavior, but much of this data remains inaccessible to independent researchers; tv studies must collaborate with producers to observe data
The ritual uses of television:
The study of global and diasporic audiences in television is a growing frontier, as television has become more international and audiences more mobile; used to focus mostly on western content but has adapted w/ globalization
Early studies, such as those on the American soap Dallas by Ien Ang and Katz and Liebes, challenged the idea of cultural imperialism, showing how global audiences actively interpret content rather than passively absorbing it.
Leads to different interpretations
scholars like Toby Miller and others have pointed out that, while global audiences can reject or reinterpret content, they have limited control over what is available to them, as the dominance of American media still shapes what is broadcast globally.
Netflix blurs the lines of nationality in programming and facilitates two-way flows of media, allowing global viewers to access shows from various countries.
shift raises new questions about how content is consumed and understood across different cultural contexts.
audience studies must also consider how television plays a role in identity formation, especially for diasporic and migrant communities
concept of "third spaces," where migrants exist between their home and host countries, illustrates how media consumption can help these audiences navigate hybrid identities
Global and diasporic audience studies offer insights into how media shapes identity, nationhood, and cultural interactions across borders.
What next?:
While earlier work focused on how audiences interacted with television, especially in domestic settings, there is now a need to update that understanding for the streaming era, exploring new viewing behaviors like binge watching
There is a growing need to examine underrepresented groups such as working-class, non-Western, and queer audiences rather than middle-class, white, American audiences
Beyond traditional fan studies, newer approaches have begun to interrogate dislike, discomfort, and distaste in media consumption, exploring topics such as anti-fandom and "hate-watching."
research has started to focus on audiences' role in piracy and informal distribution, as access to media content is not always equally available worldwide
shift highlights the complexities of global media consumption, especially in regions where audiences must pirate content due to restrictions.
Researchers have been exploring how fan communities engage in activism, whether through political mobilization or pushing back against insufficient representation in media
activism has brought structure into the discussion of audience agency, offering a more comprehensive view of how audiences interact with media power dynamics
audience studies are at a crossroads, needing to integrate the study of identities and communities back into its original focus on power and ideology
As media consumption becomes more fragmented and politically charged, audience research has the potential to offer valuable insights into how television and other media shape our political and cultural realities
The field is poised for growth, with more ambitious projects on the horizon.
Summary: emphasizes the evolution of audience studies from a focus on passive reception to a more nuanced understanding of active, diverse, and global audiences. It calls for continued research on how television consumption is shaped by social, cultural, and technological changes.
Key terms:
Cultural imperialism: one culture becoming dominant
Ex: Americans produce a lot of global media, becoming the “dominant” culture
Digital convergence: technologies integrating together to spread a message and connect with viewers
Narrowcasting: creating niche programs with hopes of appealing more to a smaller audience rather than a large audience with minimal engagement
Additional Reading #7:
4 phases of media effects paradigms:
WWI to end of 1930s: effects of media population would be exceedingly strong; media credited with an almost unlimited power to shape opinion & belief
Gave rise to “hypodermic needle concept,” “magic bullet theory,” and “transmission belt theory”
People in urbanized areas were alienated and susceptible to manipulation, such as that from the media
End of 1930s to end of 1960s: media not that influential
Deconstructed the bullet theory
Election study “the people’s choice" moved interest away from media’s impacts on people to what people did with media
People use selective exposure & perception to protect themselves from media influences; opinion leaders initiate a 2 step flow of communication transformed ideas into less active people; social group formation enhances the role that interpersonal comm. plays in protecting members from a change of opinion
End of 1960s to end of 1970s: characterized by rediscovery of strong media effects
Essay by elisabeth noelle-numann considered to set the program for movement into 3rd phase - possible for media to overcome some selectivity processes in a tv-saturated environment
More sophisticated methods of analysis, more specific hypotheses, more highly differentiated theoretical approaches
Research since then less focused on crude changes in attitude/behavior, more on subtle changes in perception of the world
End of 1970s to today: characterized by “negotiated” or “transactional” effects
Media exerts greater influence when they become involved in process of creating sense & meaning
Theories connected with approach: constructivism - cultivation of theory, framing - information processing theories
Research driven by 2 insights: media construct social formations & history itself by framing images of reality in patterned ways & people in audiences construct for themselves their own view of social reality & their place in it in interaction w/ social constructions made by media
Challenges to 4 phases model:
Oversimplified account of received media effects, which became relevant b/c they provided digestible summaries of complex processes
Numerous studies from ww2 indicate presence of media effects can be identified, unlike the 2nd phase suggests
Evidence rejected (8% changed vote b/c of media)
Biased perceptions of media effects:
Few pieces of evidence provided in Klapper’s synopsis
The effects of mass communication (1960), leading to a one-sided interpretation of data
No impression on readers of the time or on later generations of research
Klapper also wired for CBS who was trying to prove lack of media impact on audiences and used his argument to prove that
Today, a growing number of scholars agree that the established standard history of the field is misleading because it tends to ignore those findings that do not fit neatly into the stage-by-stage scenario
the sum total of all these considerations yields the conclusion that the history of media effects research still waits to be written
Additional Reading #8: Obscene
Obscene content does not have protection by the First Amendment
must meet a three-pronged test established by the Supreme Court to be ruled obscene
It must appeal to an average person’s prurient interest
depict or describe sexual conduct in a patently offensive way
taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value
Indecent content: portrays sexual or excretory organs or activities in a way that doesn’t meet the 3-prong test for obscenity
Profane content: includes “grossly offensive” language considered a public nuisance
Factors determining how FCC rules apply include: the specific nature of the content, the time of day it was broadcast and the context in which the broadcast took place
Broadcasting obscene content always prohibited; profane content prohibited between 6am & 10pm, when children may be present
Cable, satellite, and radio: obscene content not protected under 1st amendment so it is prohibited; indecency & profanity not prohibited b/c of subscription services
Enforcements usually occur after complaints from the public, then an investigation occurs if it is warranted
Additional Reading #9: 1st amendment & pornogrophy-obsenity
Struggle to define what is too obscene and “hard-core” to be protected under the 1st amendment; dealt with on a case-by-case basis
Different states can have different policies regarding what is “obscene”
Internet makes it more challenging to limit obscenities
Child pornography strictly prohibited, including images w/ adults indistinguishable from minors
FCC also monitors indecent speech during certain hours when children may be listening
Chapter 3: Industries
The third area of television studies can also be called institutional or production studies.
We include studies of the processes and entities involved in making and distributing television as well as its related technologies.
Television industries include the production studios that produce programs, the networks, channels, and internet services that distribute them to viewers, the global conglomerates that own studios and services, and the regulatory and governmental agencies that allocate government funds and set rules and policies
This "industry studies" approach explores who creates television, how decisions are made, and how internet distribution has transformed the industry.
Research on television industries draws on sociology, anthropology, and political economy to understand production conditions, regulatory influences, and cultural impact, considering how these factors shape both content and audience experience.
Television industry studies emerged in the early 2000s, but its intellectual roots trace back to mid-20th-century “administrative research” in the U.S., which focused on practical industry-driven questions rather than critical analysis of media's social impact.
The divergence in U.S. and U.K. approaches shaped distinct perspectives on television industries that continue to influence scholarship today.
critical study of television began with Adorno and Horkheimer’s “Culture Industry” theory, which argued that media’s commercial motives stifled genuine art and depoliticized audiences.
influenced the development of political economy in television studies, with US scholars focusing on media ownership and commercialization, while British researchers emphasized television’s public role and state relationships.
British cultural studies also linked industry conditions to cultural and audience impact,
US studies often explored production practices and the influence of producers, though primarily in relation to industry dynamics rather than broader social implications.
Todd Gitlin’s Inside Prime Time (1983) is a landmark study in television industry research, blending interviews and Marxist theory to analyze network-era U.S. television production, focusing on creative and commercial tensions.
influenced the shift from behavioral studies to critical cultural studies, spurred further by Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model, which inspired scholars to examine television’s societal impact
U.S. television studies grew to blend industrial analysis with cultural and textual perspectives, informed by sociology, anthropology, and neo-Marxist theories.
"middle-range methodology," which bridges broad theoretical frameworks and detailed audience analysis.
Critical Media Industry Studies (CMIS), offers a culturally informed industry perspective that examines power dynamics within media organizations, incorporating agency and contextual factors in television production.
Production studies, often focused on specific production sites and practices, draw on sociology and anthropology to examine how production reflects broader social relations.
Global television industry studies have increasingly examined contexts outside the US and UK and challenged the traditional cultural imperialism model.
analyzes how racial and cultural dynamics play out across borders & explores the impact of national and international trade policies on production and distribution
The emergence of media hubs or "media capitals," such as Hong Kong and Lagos, exemplifies how television flows globally
The policy side of television studies, once separate from humanities, has shifted to include cultural and historical perspectives, analyzing how regulation influences content.
Internet distribution, piracy, and environmental concerns are also emerging areas, examining both informal media economies and the life cycle of television hardware.
The rise of internet-distributed TV (e.g., Netflix, Amazon) redefined viewing experiences and led to on-demand access, challenging the traditional linear model.
While internet distribution disrupts, it doesn’t replace TV; it’s a new delivery method within a broader video ecosystem.
This shift blurred the boundaries between film, TV, and social media, with debates on categorizing content like YouTube videos as “social media entertainment” rather than TV.
The field also investigates race and representation, examining casting practices that limit roles for non-white actors; digital platforms provide opportunities for diverse voices
The field now increasingly combines political economy and cultural studies approaches, especially as global and digital shifts transform traditional TV models, encouraging interdisciplinary perspectives that link industrial practices to specific television content.
General summary: the chapter examines how television industries shape the content and culture of TV. It delves into the business dynamics that impact what gets produced, how it is distributed, and who controls these processes. Gray explores how these industrial practices influence creative decisions and viewer experience, discussing topics like global markets, digital distribution, and the influence of multinational corporations. By focusing on the behind-the-scenes elements, the chapter reveals how economic and organizational factors contribute to shaping television as both an industry and cultural product
Media effects:
Propaganda sent out in early to mid 1900s amidst wars and other media forms (ex movies) on the rise with intent to increase patriotism and promote war efforts
Payne fund studies: examined presence & content of movies and their effects on people, especially children (1929-32)
Edgar Dale 75% of films focused on crime, love, sex (1920-30)
4 phases:
Hypodermic needle - 1920s & 30s: All powerful media (direct effects paradigm)
Theory of media effects put to the test (limited effects paradigm)
We're more influenced by our opinion leaders than through the media itself; media - opinion leaders - us
Powerful media effects rediscovered
Negotiated media influence
bullet/hypodermic needle theory: idea that there are powerful media effects; media has a direct impact on people
2-step flow theory: media doesn’t impact you directly, but rather indirectly
Ex: media influences opinion leaders (parents, coaches, etc.) and the effect on them effects you
Spiral of silence theory: if you view yourself to be in the minority opinion on a controversial opinion, you’re less likely to voice your opinion for fear of social isolation, and others like you are also less likely to speak out, therefore those that feel like you become less and less common as the majority speaks out and spreads influence over society
Silent majority idea
Vocal minority idea
Cultivation analysis theory: argues that television and other media plays an extremely important role in how mass people view the world. In modern cultures most people get their information in a mediated fashion rather than through direct experience. It explains that the heavy television viewing cultivates a sense of the world that is more violent and scary than the world actually is.
Mainstreaming effect: over time, when hearing a media’s view of an issue, people will begin to lean that way
Ex: if the media leans towards the middle-left, then right leaning people will go towards the middle, and extreme left leaning people will head towards the middle too
Social learning theory: you learn from your social environment what is good & bad (ex: a kid steals a candy bar and the response leads to different consequences, such as if the kids’ friends embrace the stealing or someone catches them and reprimands them)
Different from mimicry, b/c it depends more on the outcomes rather than just mimicking what they saw or experienced
Selective exposure: b/c of our beliefs (ex political) you’re more likely to watch channels that expose you to messages that align with your beliefs
Selective avoidance: people avoid messages that don’t align with their beliefs
confirmation bias: idea that we are more readily likely to believe or accept messages & evidence that supports our beliefs and ideas
Desensitization: when people are exposed to media that may contain harmful messages, but they become less and less impacted/surprised by these messages
Ex: violence, language, sex, etc.
Imitative crimes: when criminals will copy heinous acts that they’ve seen in the media or when they want notoriety
1950s & 60s - content concerns over violence on TV
Recognition of lacking cause-effect evidence
It depends: the message, the medium, the audience, the type of effect, etc.
Micro vs macro media effect: individuals vs large groups
Types of changes:
Attitudinal & emotional
Behavioral - could include purchases
Cognitive
Alteration vs stabilization: altering where you stand on controversial things vs stabilizing your opinion on an issue
Media effects research:
Third person effect: we see others as more likely to be effected than we see ourselves
Agenda setting: primarily about news; media set the agenda for discussion based on what they say about it, how often they mention it, and how important they make it out to be
Cultivation effect: heavy viewing of tv leads people to perceive reality in ways consistent with portrayal on tv
Uses & gratifications model: researchers studied ways in which people used the media to satisfy their various emotional or intellectual needs
Sex & violence:
Pornography: writings, pictures, etc. intended to arouse sexual desires
Porn is generally considered protected free speech if not obscene and not containing children
Not all porn is legally “obscene”
Guidelines for jurors identifying obscenity - Miller v. California (1973)
Appeals to prurient interests (excessive interests in sex)
depict or describe sexual conduct in a patently offensive way
taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value
Also stated that its appropriate for these standards to vary by community
Industries:
Many different channels & companies producing media, however they’re owned by relatively few companies
Ex: Apple, Disney, Microsoft, Amazon are big “monopolies”
Channels like BBC in the UK value more academic involvement than channels like NBC or CBS that value more profit
Cultural imperialism: by pushing out so much content, our own views, beliefs, and culture influence people in other countries
w/ globalization, there seems to be less of this occurring, with companies like Netflix starting to import more content from other countries (ex: Squid Games)
News Coverage:
Deploying deception: 2 major ethical positions
Absolutist ethics - ends never justify the means (probably stronger emphasized today)
Situational ethics - ethical decisions on a case-by-case basis
Invading privacy: journalists often straddle a line between “right to know” & the right to privacy
Journalism’s code of ethics warns reporters & editors not to place themselves in positions of conflict of interest
Where they may benefit personally from stories they produce
1840s: rise of the telegraph
Editors wanted to focus on the present
De-emphasized political analysis & historical context
Modern journalism
Rejects “old news” for events or ideas
News often lacks historical context
Getting a good story
Criticism of journalism for allowing narrative conventions to trump the social responsibility to tell the truth
Getting a story 1st
Self-promotion for beating competitors to a story is routine
Not always clear how the public is better served by a journalist’s claim to have gotten a story first
- Balance means presenting all sides if an issue w/o appearing to favor any position
Presents problems: time & space constraints; misrepresentation of the complexity of social issues; journalists’ claiming neutrality makes them appear value free; disguises journalists’ narrative function
Adversarial relationship between leaders & journalists
Tough questioning style - “gotcha questions”
Different blocks during newscasts (A, Bc, C) go in order of importance of stories
Ex: A Block - dire, hardhitting news; D block - softer, feel-good stories
Naked for cognition: some people tend to think about current events more often & consume more news
Agenda setting: media sets the agenda for which issues are important by deciding when to tell certain stories, who tells them, which stories to tell, etc.
Framing: how a story is framed can influence how people perceive it
the order you hear sides of an argument; language used to discuss it, etc.
Spiral of silence: the media sets the opinion for the majority, silencing the opposing opinion, who often becomes the minority as a result, & out of fear of isolation they don’t speak up
Selective exposure: people tune into news that supports their opinions & avoids news that opposes it
“If it bleeds, it leads”
What is considered newsworthy?:
Proximity - how close it is to the audience & how important it is to them as a result
Timeliness - how long ago something happened; more recent = more important
Impact - how the story impacts the audience & how important it is to them
Prominence - people in the story; if they’re more prominent figures (ex: leaders, celebrities, etc.) = more important
Conflict - stories w/ more conflict are more important to people (ex: “state fair is happening” vs “gunshots at the state fair”)
Simplicity - breaking down a story for the audience; more digestible = more relevant & important to audience
Infotainment vs entermation: does it matter if you’re telling important stories but no one is listening?
News companies have to balance the need for the story w/ audience engagement
Objectivity vs transparency: telling just the facts vs being clear about what side you’re on
Balance is important for both to appeal to audience
Laws & regulations:
- Radio act of 1927: originally, anyone who had the ability to broadcast could, which created problems - to combat this, the gov regulated the airwaves, treating them like parks & other public spaces
Must serve the entertainment, convenience, and necessities of the people
Many tv regulations carried over from radio
- FCC replaced the FRC in determining regulations for broadcasting; biggest threat is revoking licenses
- FCC considers station renewals on:
Balance of commercial & sustaining programs
Provision of local live programs
Presence of public affairs programs that discuss public issues
The elimination of advertising excess
- the big chill: no new licenses from 1948-53 as the FCC tried to solve crowded VHF band
- deregulation period in 1980s & 90s
- telecommunications act of 1996
- 1st amendment protects press & holds gov. accountable
- defamation: publicly harming someone’s reputation
- slander: harming someone’s reputation but not published/public
- if a statement is true, you can’t sue for defamation
- invasion of privacy: 4 types - intrusion, embarrassment, false light, & misappropriation
- free press & fair trial - cameras in courtrooms?; sometimes pretrial publicity leads to an impartial jury: gag orders can be given to the jury, jury can be sequestered, postpone trial until publicity dies down, change trial venue, order a new trial
- prior restraint: generally not okay for gov. to prevent journalists from publishing stories
- journalists protected under 1st amendment for variety of acts
Contexts:
Historical analysis within television studies
Other types: culturally; social role; charting changes & continuities of the medium, genre, or industrial place; industrial histories (FCC for ex)
TV history: particular moments, across time, histories of the present - present changes as shifts in media
Textual history/context: immediate viewings of programs back to back
Excitation transfer: ex - watching sports, after a few dull plays an exciting one may raise excitement levels 40%, whereas a few exciting plays back to back may raise excitement levels only 4%
Flow: opening credit to ad to situation in episode, etc. - these sequences compose the real flow & real broadcasting
Flow can vary by location/station (watching the same show, experiencing different flow)
Internet distribution alters “flow” today too - now about images, menus, and assemblage of texts in the interfaces & portals where they access television
Intertextuality: reliance of any text upon other texts for its meaning
references to other shows to make jokes (ex - in Gilmore Girls or the Office)
Parody & satire in tv: ex - Simpsons, SNL
How shows & actors change over time, changing the perception of that show - ex: Cosby Show
Convergence: mixing & mingling of disparate media, technologies, platforms, etc
Paratext: all things surrounding a work, not traditionally thought of as the work