Notes

RTV Notes
Television is the most powerful and prevalent mass communication medium in America (and the world).
TV is still a go-to for breaking news over the internet (for now).
Mass Communication Medium
Mass - large, heterogeneous, anonymous audience, institutional, organizational sources. (transcends gender/race)
Communication - reciprocity, feedback, response,
(consumers will watch television and are influenced by its messages, constant conversation between TV and audience)
Mass communication shapes our reality.
We spend more than half of our leisure time watching TV. More time watching TV besides working and sleeping.
TV Can Be Defined By Any Of Its Six Functions:
Commercial Industry - advertisement
Democratic Institution - equalizes the viewers (most everyone has access to TV)
Textual Form - archetypes are incorporated
Site of Cultural Representation - pop culture
Part of Everyday Life - a touchstone, something we can have in common
Technological Medium - TV is adapting an changing to culture
TV is a multi-billion dollar industry: advertising, cable fees, DVD sales, merchandising
Multiple competing and converging interests: advertisers, networks, local affiliates
Chief function of TV is to attract audiences for advertisers.
Networks are attempting to hedge their distribution.
This allows them to disperse liability.
The toughest thing to predict in entertainment is who is going to watch what.
Television as a Democratic Institution
- informing citizens and serving the public interest (rapid dissemination of information)
- facilitating communication between candidates, leaders, and citizens
- regulated by public policy agencies and rules
Television a Cultural Representation
- Promoting a common identity among viewers
- national identity
- gender, racial, ethnic, and other identities
- Transmitting cultural and social values
- Promoting societal norms and expectations
Television as Textual Form
- Television is a distinct creative form with its own set of genres
- Genres arise through a process of pseudo-individualization
- TV genres have the same broad, general characteristics
- TV genres have minor differences that make each unique
- Genres are defined largely by their use of narrative structure
- Exposition
- Climax
- Resolution
TV is a part of everyday life.
- we watch TV
- we talk about TV
- we use TV for identity and social interaction
Television as a Technological Medium
- television is a box that projects images
- television is something you can watch online
- the technologies surrounding television have significant influence over who is controlling content, distribution, and use of the medium