LO2: Know about the key issues and debates that affect the television and video industry

Issues and Debates

Taste and Decency

Within the film industry, there are still rules against releasing materials that can be offensive to good taste or decency or public feelings. Timing is one of the most important parts of running a successful TV channel. Channels must consider the context as well as the time of release or airing as it can offend audiences if a traumatic event has recently taken place. An example of this would be the release of the movie gone baby gone at the time of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Gone baby gone is amovie in which a small child is taken from her home and the main character must try hunt down her killer in order to find her. This movie can be offensive to the audience as shortly before the release of the movie, a young girl named Madeleine McCann was taken out of her holiday home in Brazil. The movie uses the same topic of a girl being taken which can easily trigger Madeleine's family and friends as well as the public as it is a sensitive topic. The way this was regulated was by postponing the release date of the movie in the UK. The movie was released later after the public had enough time to grieve and come to terms with what had happened. TV channels must retain a level of taste and decency on their channel as it will protect the public as well as reduce controvercy.

Quality and Standards

Each TV channel has the responsibility to supply the audience with the content of good quality and standards. This means that TV channels must broadcast shows that are not just entertaining to watch, but also shows that can inform and be useful. Nowadays, TV channels are known to choose to broadcast popular, mainstream shows instead of shows that are of good quality and standards. An example of this would be channel 4 news and channel 5 news. According to a study conducted into the dumbing down of news, Channel 4 has maintained their content quality and standards, at around 90% of content, whereas Channel 5 has shown a drop of 50% in its content standards. This is because of Channel 4 broadcasts all the news they receive as well as supplying the audience with information on what is going on in the world, whereas Channel 5 chooses what news they include in their broadcast. This means that Channel 5 has been choosing the news that will be popular compared to the news of good quality and standards, therefore dumbing down their broadcasts. To dumb something down is to appeal to an audience of lesser intelligence and education. 

Ratings

Ratings are a way of judging the potential amount of households who tune into one show and channel. This is done via the Nielsen media research system. This is when the number of people watching televisions shows is recorded and turned into data that cable networks can use. They can do this using statistical sampling. This is when they use your TV box to gather information about your TV schedule. They then use the information gathered off of the TV box and combine it with a huge database of shows and channels to gather final data on ratings for the cable companies. A rating war is when two or more TV shows make an effort to gather more viewers. An example of this could be The X-Factor competing against Strictly come dancing in a rating war. Ra ting wars usually take place when shows ratings are dropping. In the rating war between the X Factor and Strictly come dancing, Strictly come dancing won. An investigating into the rating war shows that audiences enjoy the X Factor less as some ridiculous acts are kept over better ones in order to manipulate the audience, however the audience is aware of what is happening. This makes the show less enjoyable, whereas Strictly come dancing is used to create pure entertainment off of actual talent. 

Online Streaming

Online streaming is when and audience can watch shows shown on TV on line instead. In the UK, there are many online streaming options. The main online streamers are Netflix, Amazon prime and Now TV. If we compare Netflix to Amazon Prime, we can see that Netflix has a very wide range of shows for just 6 to 9 pounds a month, depending on the type of streaming wanted, and can be accessed on almost any electronic device, whereas Amazon Prime has a more limited, but still large, variety of shows and costs form 6 pounds a month to 80 pounds a year, this is with a prime membership, and can be used on many devices, however not as much as Netflix. By comparing these two we can see that online streaming can be very different for similar products. Some advantages of online streaming is that it is can be watched as many times as wanted, it protects piracy and can be accessed almost any ware as long as you have internet access. Some disadvantages would be that it can be very expensive, it requires a certain bandwidth (internet speed) and that it is only found online. Online streaming affects many things about shows such as scheduling, censorship and variety. Censorship on online streaming can become a lot more lenient as younger viewers can easily watch higher rating shows as there is no lock on the shows nor is there watershed. Online streaming can also widen the variety of shows compared to seen on TV as shows from all around the world and soon to be released shows can be seen online. Online scheduling also interferes with scheduling as shows that are released on a certain day at a certain time may already be released online.


Influences and Effects

Hypodermic needle theory

The Hypodermic needle theory is a theory that suggests that mass media has a direct and immediate effect on its audience. This means that the media ‘injects’ or ‘implants’ messages that are made to create a desired response from the audience. The hypodermic theory suggests that a message is shown to the audience and it takes an instant effect as if a doctor had ‘injected’ the message into the audience's brain and they can't avoid following the message. This also suggests that audiences are weak and easily influenced by media and television. An example of this would be Orson Well’s radio performance. On 30th October 1938, Halloween’s eve, the radio was cut to a live news bulletin, where the audience could hear the world being invaded by aliens. The audience was not aware that Orson Well was performing the script of G.H.Well’s, War of the Worlds, over the live radio. Little did he know, this would cause an extreme situation of mass hysteria as one million out of the twelve million people believed that the broadcast was real and began preparing for the invasion. This relates to the hypodermic needle theory as it injected the message of the world being invaded into the audience's brain and they believed exactly what he said. There are some flaws to the theory however, audiences can not be judged on their ability to easily believe things as each audience member has their own capacity of naivety. Another flaw would be that audiences interpret media differently, certain things such as beliefs or attitudes can not be observed or measured the way other processes can and that audiences may change their thinking often, therefore, one day they could believe the media and the next they won't, so how can we judge or analyse audiences thought processes when it can change often. Instead of using this theory, we can look at the audience as complex beings who have the ability to change and reform their ideas and opinions on what they see on television. I believe that audiences do sometimes believe what they see and hear on TV, however, many people research into what the heard or saw and their opinions change as well as the people who never believed what they saw in the start.

Uses and gratifications theory

There is also the uses and gratifications theory, which suggests there are only 4 reasons why any one person will consume media. These 4 reasons would be diversion, personal relationships, personal identity, and information. Diversion is used as an escape from everyday life such as school, routines and problems, and for entertainment. This can be demonstrated in any game being played or show being watched. Personal relationships are when someone uses media for social interaction with other people. This can be when a group of people have a discussion on a game or a film. Personal identity is when a person sees himself reflected in a form of media.This can be a person who finds similarities in a character's behavior, appearance or simply the way a character carries themselves. And information is when a person uses media to gather information that can be useful in day to day life. An example of consuming media for personal identity would lie in any non-factual tv show, such as Sherlock. The audience will watch Sherlock to watch the characters as the audience can see themselves in the characters. This allows them to feel what the character is feeling and replace the character by themselves in the situations the character is going through allowing them to develop personal connections. An example of consuming media for information would be the news and weather forecasts such as BBC news. An audience member will consume information from BBC news to gain knowledge into the daily weather as well as what is taking place in other places around the world. If we compare these two reasons for consuming media we can see that personal identity is non-factual whereas the information consumption is factual. This shows the different interest levels seen in media.
An example of diversion would be Emmerdale as audiences watch this to escape their own everyday lives and instead enter a different universe where they don't have stresses of day to day life. And finally, an example of personal relationships would be Luther as the audience will watch the show to engage and entertain the idea of the characters interacting with them personally. If we compare these two ways of consumption, we can see that diversion is used temporarily as an escape, however, personal relationships are used as a personal way of communicating with someone throughout a journey of the series. Although these ways of consuming media are very different, they can be used more than one at a time. For example, some audiences watch shows such as Sherlock or Emmerdale to develop personal relationships as well as using is for personal identity, and sometimes even diversion as well.

Reception theory 

The reception theory is a theory developed to show how people read media. There are 3 stages. Stage 1 would be encoding. This is when a message is produced in a media using codes or sign systems. Stage 2 is the message. This is what messages the film or game produce. And stage 3 which is decoding. Decoding is when the meanings produced are consumed with the codes being communicated to the audience. There are 3 ways of decoding, or reading, media texts. 1 is dominant reading: this is when the viewer recognizes the preferred or offered meaning and broadly agrees with it. Number 2 is negotiating reading. This is when the reader accepts, rejects or refines elements of the program in light of previously held views. And 3, which is o-positional reading. This is when the dominant reading is recognized but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons. As an example we can use the show Sherlock. Younger viewers between the ages of 10 - 16 will most likely be the oppositional reading as they have no characters to relate to, as well as the use of higher education language and phrases that they will not understand. Audiences aged 30 - 40 year olds will be the negotiated reading as they will understand the language and higher educated references younger cant relate to, as well as relating to some characters shown in the series. The dominant reading will be 18 - 28 year olds as they can most closely relate to the situations taking place, as well as being able to relate to the characters and being interested in the crime aspect included in the show. They will also be able to understand the language and references used.