Financial Worry
There are a number of different issues the UK television industry currently faces, one of which is its financial situation, since according to a report by OC&C featured in an article by Mark Sweney, the BBC, ITV and Sky might be at risk of losing one billion pounds to competition from the likes of Facebook, Netflix and YouTube. The traditional broadcasting services are suffering due to the technological change in the television industry. The report states that broadcasting could be controlled by “one or two ‘supper-aggregators’ that act as viewing gateways” for consumers who want to access a mass profusion of media content more easily and simply. Furthermore, an article by Jim Waterson for The Guardian reveals that less than “half of Britons aged between 16 and 24 watch a traditional live BBC television channel in the average week.” Also, younger viewers are more twice as likely to watch BBC programmes on Netflix rather than on BBC’s iPlayer and twice as likely to listen to commercial radio rather than BBC stations. The report of OC&C states the over 20% of under 35-year-olds use more than seven different services for television even though 40% of the general public state that they are confused by how many options available there are. Mostyn Goodwin, a partner at OC&C affirms that “viewers are facing a complex web of different routes to access TV content, leading to an unsustainable level of confusion and inconvenience. This environment is giving rise to the need for a super-aggregator service that provides a universal access point to content.” However, despite this television business such as Sky, BBS, Channel 4, BT and ITV are said to be worth 15 million pounds annually, combined. Henceforth, it might take a few more years for the traditional broadcasting industry to completely die off.
Public Service Broadcasting
The television industry is made up of several different companies, privately owned and publicly owned. The BBC is a privately owned company, paid for by a license fee applied to every household with a television, appealing to PSB (Public Service Broadcasting). The BBC uses this as its income to pay for its television, radio and online services, including other costs. PSB is based upon 8 basic principles: universal availability; universal appeal; recognition of citizens; representation; seek to inform, educate and entertain; no political influence; encourage competition in good programming; liberate the programme maker, rather than restrict them. Another requirement for PSB in the UK is that it has to appeal to all groups in society, providing the audience with content that they want and need, spread equally across all social, cultural, ethnic and other groups in society. Along with the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, S4C (Wales) and Channel 5 are others that have to abide by these terms as a condition of their broadcasting licence, which requires them to provide a range of programs for minority groups in society. This benefits the employees working at these broadcasting companies as they profit through their public ownership. However, these companies, such as the BBC, are often heavily criticized by others who argue that the license fees are just another tax that people are forced to pay and anti-competitive; seeing as the BBC has established a monopoly over the television and radio industries in Britain, resulting in lack of competition, and them dominating the industries. Although many counter this by saying that “the BBC produces a lot of output that the commercial sector wouldn’t even consider. It is vital to the cultural health of the nation.” Nonetheless, publicly-owned and commercially-funded public service broadcasters such as Channel 4 do not make money from the license fee and instead are funded through advertising and sponsorship. They can also make money from product placement, wherein a company pays a TV channel or production company to feature their products and/or brand in a program. Channel 4 is a non-profit enterprise that buys and sells programs as it sees fit in order to maintain a certain level of success.
The British PSB has a long history, dating all the way back to the 1840s, however, the first-ever public UK TV transmission was broadcast by the BBC in 1932, this was followed by the emergence of several PSBs all over the globe, most modelled themselves after the BBC. Despite their varied approaches, they all had the same objective: "to construct an entity, free of commercial and political pressures, that would provide public interest information and entertainment programming." Later, in 1955 ITV established itself as the second British Broadcaster; it was a commercially funded broadcaster, meaning it was financed by advertising revenue. The BBC, known most notably for becoming the first public service broadcaster in the UK, was founded by Lord John Reith, who helped create the British Broadcasting Corporation and several of its policies, eventually adopting the mission to "inform, educate and entertain", setting the standards for most PSBs even to this day. Furthermore, several other commercial broadcasters followed in BBC's footsteps, such as ITV (1955), Channel3 (1955), Channel4 (1982) and S4C (1982 - Welsh language programmer), the latter two being set up by the government in 1981 in order to introduce more diversity to the public broadcasting content reaching the people. Hence, the UK government set certain rules and regulations that local franchises were required to abide by (eg: watershed), which helped mandate "a certain level of local news coverage, arts and religious programming, in return for the right to broadcast." Channel 4, in particular, was set up as an alternative to the BBC as a way to cater to minorities and arts. Neither Channel4 nor S4C were required to become commercial successes since the former was subsidized by ITV and the latter was allotted a grant from the central government. However, this changed after the Broadcasting ACT of 1990, that stated Channel4 become a self-financing state-owned corporation, with the BBC funding S4C starting 2013. Later, Channel5, which was launched in 1997, was allocated numerous PSB requirements, such as providing "minimum amounts of programming from various genres, minimum amounts of programming originally commissioned by the channel and of European origin, and maximum limits on the number of repeats." The digital age of PSB has raised several questions and concerns, and broadcasters like the BBC, have been criticized for "being expansionist and exceeding its public service remit by providing content that could be provided by commercial broadcasters." The argument states that the BBC has made it difficult for commercial providers to operate, and distorted the market in doing so. On the other hand of the discussion, the BBC has been defended by those that state that the corporation needs to provide the public with new services, entertainment and information in order to remain relevant in the digital age. In addition, the public service requirements and commitments of commercial broadcasters may be largely questionable, since they do not have any public service obligations or impositions. Due to the large shift towards digital, these broadcasters will have the same coverage as the analogue commercial broadcasters (eg: ITV, BBC, Channel4, etc), this has led to a decline in the popularity of analogue commercial channels. This has raised concerns as to how these analogue commercial channels, with such strict public service obligations, would compete with digital channels (eg: Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc) and multinational television. Good examples of this would be ITV, which has been trying to significantly reduce their PS obligations to produce non-profitable programming, while Channel4 has projected a £100 million funding gap, if it is to continue with PSB after the digital switch-over. Ofcom, which regulates most of the PS broadcasters in the UK, has recently been consulting on what direction it should take PSB in the future.
The British PSB has a long history, dating all the way back to the 1840s, however, the first-ever public UK TV transmission was broadcast by the BBC in 1932, this was followed by the emergence of several PSBs all over the globe, most modelled themselves after the BBC. Despite their varied approaches, they all had the same objective: "to construct an entity, free of commercial and political pressures, that would provide public interest information and entertainment programming." Later, in 1955 ITV established itself as the second British Broadcaster; it was a commercially funded broadcaster, meaning it was financed by advertising revenue. The BBC, known most notably for becoming the first public service broadcaster in the UK, was founded by Lord John Reith, who helped create the British Broadcasting Corporation and several of its policies, eventually adopting the mission to "inform, educate and entertain", setting the standards for most PSBs even to this day. Furthermore, several other commercial broadcasters followed in BBC's footsteps, such as ITV (1955), Channel3 (1955), Channel4 (1982) and S4C (1982 - Welsh language programmer), the latter two being set up by the government in 1981 in order to introduce more diversity to the public broadcasting content reaching the people. Hence, the UK government set certain rules and regulations that local franchises were required to abide by (eg: watershed), which helped mandate "a certain level of local news coverage, arts and religious programming, in return for the right to broadcast." Channel 4, in particular, was set up as an alternative to the BBC as a way to cater to minorities and arts. Neither Channel4 nor S4C were required to become commercial successes since the former was subsidized by ITV and the latter was allotted a grant from the central government. However, this changed after the Broadcasting ACT of 1990, that stated Channel4 become a self-financing state-owned corporation, with the BBC funding S4C starting 2013. Later, Channel5, which was launched in 1997, was allocated numerous PSB requirements, such as providing "minimum amounts of programming from various genres, minimum amounts of programming originally commissioned by the channel and of European origin, and maximum limits on the number of repeats." The digital age of PSB has raised several questions and concerns, and broadcasters like the BBC, have been criticized for "being expansionist and exceeding its public service remit by providing content that could be provided by commercial broadcasters." The argument states that the BBC has made it difficult for commercial providers to operate, and distorted the market in doing so. On the other hand of the discussion, the BBC has been defended by those that state that the corporation needs to provide the public with new services, entertainment and information in order to remain relevant in the digital age. In addition, the public service requirements and commitments of commercial broadcasters may be largely questionable, since they do not have any public service obligations or impositions. Due to the large shift towards digital, these broadcasters will have the same coverage as the analogue commercial broadcasters (eg: ITV, BBC, Channel4, etc), this has led to a decline in the popularity of analogue commercial channels. This has raised concerns as to how these analogue commercial channels, with such strict public service obligations, would compete with digital channels (eg: Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc) and multinational television. Good examples of this would be ITV, which has been trying to significantly reduce their PS obligations to produce non-profitable programming, while Channel4 has projected a £100 million funding gap, if it is to continue with PSB after the digital switch-over. Ofcom, which regulates most of the PS broadcasters in the UK, has recently been consulting on what direction it should take PSB in the future.
Ratings Wars
Ratings are an important aspect of broadcasting because they help networks decide if a show should be cancelled or continued to be produced depending on if the show captures the audience’s attention successfully. If the show is successful it continues to go on and the ratings go up. Ratings also give companies a rough audience count from the number of viewers watching the show, which is another factor that helps decide a programme’s fate. They can also be used to attract advertisers and subscribers, although this mainly applies to multi-channel and commercial broadcasters. The BBC prizes its ratings since it has to compete heavily with commercial broadcasters and is funded by licence fees, giving it enough revenue to fund its programme, whereas commercial broadcasters gain revenue from investors, sponsorships, product placement, endorsements and advertisements. Thus the BBC wants to keep its licence funding by putting it to good use.
|
|
A good example of this is BBC competition with ITV over the scheduling of its drama Silent Witness at the same time as ITV’s broadchurch on February 2nd of 2015. BBC’s Silent Witness went on to have 8.82 million viewers, nearly four million over the 5.3 million viewers of the second season of Broadchurch, giving ITV lower ratings and garnering Broadchurch an all-time low rating.
|
|
Taste & Decency
The predominant British public agrees that the decency of content shown on television has seen a swift decrease in the modern digital era due to the presence of violence, sex, nudity, bad language and heavy drug-taking. A survey of 1100 people found that 40% of participants were offended by the content shown on television. One of the most complained-about moments in British television came in 2018 when Channel 5’s Big Brother contestant Roxanne Pallett accused fellow housemate Ryan Thomas of ‘punching’ and physically assaulting her only for it to be shown later that she had grossly exaggerated the event. This infamous incident was even nicknamed ‘punchgate’, with Ofcom receiving 25,327 complaints from incensed viewers about the substance of the allegations and Pallett’s attempt at besmirching Thomas’ name in the public. There have also been several other instances where the public has taken offence to the content on television.
A watershed or ‘safe harbour’ is the time after 9pm when programmes not suitable for children are broadcast on television in the UK. Unsuitable material includes everything from “sexual content to violence, graphic or distressing imagery and swearing.” However Ofcom does state that the transition to more adult material from the family friendly prime-time and daytime programmes should not be abrupt and that the strongest material should appear later in the evening after the 9pm mark. Watershed helps set a clear boundary between the programmes inclusive of nudity, violence, aimed at adult audiences and family-friendly content. Ofcom also states that the watershed applied differs for each service, for example: free-to-air watershed takes place from 9pm to 5am, whereas subscription services have a watershed that starts at 9pm and finishes at 6am. The viewing of adult films is permitted only after 8pm and in order to access them the viewer must enter a set PIN. Any films and programmes are prohibited from airing on television before watershed. Some 12-rated shows like Doctor Who, The Simpsons, Top Gear and Futurama can be shown before watershed. Some rules are more specialised, for example non-specific channels are not allowed to air 18-rated films and shows before 10pm, whereas dedicated channels like the Horror Channel are allowed to air 18-rated shows after 9pm. Even advertisements have to meet Ofcom’s guidelines of watershed, so any adverts involving alcohol, nudity or other ‘adult’ content cannot air on children’s channels, and this also includes 18-rated adverts for video games airing after watershed. Channels that run programmes throughout the entire day must clearly detail any content not suitable for children in the form of a verbal advisory by law, or else they will be fined. A 2017 Ofcom report about 'Audience Attitudes to Programme Standards' published multiple statistics about how the British public responds to the content shown on television, as shown below:
Project Diamond
Project Diamond is "a single online system used by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky to obtain consistent diversity data on programmes they commission." It is a cross-industry approach where competing broadcasters collect and publish diversity data on gender, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability regarding people working behind and in front of the camera across all UK-originated productions. Project Diamond promotes "making individual productions, teams and companies inclusive and diverse, this resource is for anyone sourcing on and off-screen talent, locations and audiences. Split into high level, essential facts; useful in-depth information; and links to other resources, and by different stages in the production cycle; crewing up, in production and ongoing business." Users simply have to fill in the Diamond Diversity Form to help collect workforce statistics for the UK television industry. This helps regulate the amount of diversity and creativity in the content produced for audiences o television.
|
|
Case Study: Ghostwatch (1995)
In the early 1990s, Ghostwatch triggered over 20,000 complaint calls to the BBC to place a decade-long ban on it being released because it was deemed too scary and creepy by viewers. The mockumentary was ‘convincingly creepy’ and had Micheal Parkinson and Sarah Green besieged by a poltergeist named ‘Pipes’ as part of a national seance. The 90-minute drama was linked to several cases of post-traumatic-stress-disorder. Some thousands of calls: one induced labour and thousands of angry letters, the UK's Broadcasting Standards Council convened for a hearing. On June 27, 1995, they ruled that the producers of Ghostwatch set out to “cultivate a sense of menace” through the airing of an episode on Halloween that scared 11 million people straight. Ghostwatch was a BBC show that allegedly reported on paranormal activities and experiences of the Early Family. Actors portrayed the single mother Pam and daughters Suzanne and Kim. Due to the mockumentary style of the programme, several viewers were given the impression that these events were real and unstaged. In the second half of the show, things took a turn for the worse as a viewer called in to say that someone had committed suicide in their home and a mutilated dog’s corpse was said to be recently found nearby. Post-traumatic stress disorder in children was reported in the British Medical journey. Towards the end, the show’s 11 million viewers were “either convinced ghosts were real, extremely upset at the BBC for traumatizing their children, or both.”
Case Study: EastEnders (2007)
In 2007, Ofcom criticised an episode of EastEnders in which a pregnant woman went into premature labour after a gang attacked the Queen Vic pub. Ofcom said that the BBC1 soap violated the broadcasting regulation by featuring a “sustained, intense and high level of violence" that was inappropriate for a pre-watershed programme and “the violence was not appropriately limited for this time of the evening when many children are available to view television.". Ofcom received 78 complaints about the episode and rejected the BBC's defence that “viewers had been warned about the scene by an on-air announcement immediately before the show.” The “persistent attack on people and property” was deemed too inappropriate for an 8.30 pm time-slot. An article by Adam White for Independent states the this goes on to prove “the show’s unbalanced relationship with reality, and how often it pushes the idea of unflinching factuality while succumbing regularly to fantasy.” Ofcom also added “although EastEnders is not made specifically for children it does attract a significant child audience, and any portrayal of violence needs to be carefully considered...The programme started with the gang attack on the Queen Vic. This involved a sustained, intense and high level of violence, destroying parts of the pub with hammers and bottles and glasses smashing into the furniture, to intimidate the locals, some of whom were injured...Regular viewers of EastEnders are aware that this soap deals, on occasions, with tough social issues. This is balanced, however, with the expectation that it will be suitable for children to view, who form a significant minority of the audience."
|
|
Case Study: Celebrity Big Brother (2007)
Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother caused a stir over racist behaviour among contestants in January 2007. British contestants Jade Goody, Jackiey Budden, Danielle Lloyd, and Jo O'Meara, made racist comments charged towards Indian contestant Shilpa Shetty. The screening of these comments on UK television evoked a national and international response from Indian governments and UK audiences, leading to the show’s suspension during the 2008 season. “Many agencies and corporations cancelled their contracts with the housemates accused of racism, citing the allegations as the reason for the terminations.” As a result of this, Big Brother lost several of its sponsors. Later Goody apologised for her comments and any offence they caused. Ofcom carried out an investigation and ruled that Channel 4 had breached the Broadcasting Code, and statutory sanctions were placed on the network. On 15 January, Ofcom received "approximately 200 complaints of racism" and following the broadcast of Lloyd and O'Meara's conversation about cooking in India, this number increased to 3,500 complaints, with a further 1,000 complaining to Channel 4 directly. By 5pm on Tuesday 16, the complaint figures stood at 10,000 to Ofcom, and 2,000 to Channel 4. By the 20 January, the number of complaints stood at “just over” 44,500 complaints.
Women & Minorities In British Television
The representation of women in the British television industry has seen high highs and low lows this past couple of decades. Women alongside the LGBTQ+ community, ethnic and racial minorities, people with disabilities and the elderly, are under-represented in the British television industry. This has sparked a lot of debate within the public as many believe that British television should feature more accurate representations of minorities and under-represented social groups. A Channel 4 study found that “news and soaps were the only genres where women had the majority of major on-screen roles with 59% and 55% respectively. The research showed that although 36% of women in the UK are over 50, only 23% on television are above this age. There is a 75/25 ratio in favour of men for all appearances on television by people over 50.” However, despite growing concerns and awareness around the debate of diversity and fair representation, several members of the public continue to express their opinions of disagreement and opposition.
Most recently, Doctor Who was heavily criticised in sexist remarks online about Jodie Wittaker portraying The Doctor. The beloved titular character has always been played by cis white male actors for its 55 year-long run. The idea of the first female Doctor infuriated some fans who took to social media to proclaim their disdain: “yet another case of liberalism gone mad”, “She won’t be able to drive the Tardis,” “It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t fit with the narrative. What’s next – a male Wonder Woman? He’s a Time Lord, not a Time Lady. She won’t know how to use the screwdriver. What does this mean for Time Lord marriage? The clue’s in the name – it’s Doctor Who, not Nurse Who.” These backward and misogynistic remarks were opposed by the praise the show received in changing the Doctor’s gender after several decades of toying with the idea: "For each sexist bigot threatening to not watch, there'll be a young girl with a new hero they didn't have before #GoodRiddance #Doctor13”.
|
|
Broadcasting Quality & Standards
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/1/7/121724333/published/unnamed.png?1589208510)
Quality and standards for broadcasting in the UK refers to broadcasting channels making sure their content is of a high quality and the final product being broadcast to the public is of a high standard. This originated from the BBC Royal Charter discussed in September 2006 and fully put into place in the January of 2007. Records show that lower-quality programmes will have a smaller viewer count and vice versa for high-quality programming. If the quality of programmes is too low, the audience will lose interest and trust in the service and question the licence fee that they pay as part of their taxes. An instance where the quality and standard of broadcasting disappointed viewers was the BBC being fined £50,000 for misleading a child audience by faking the result of a Blue Peter premium-rate phone-in. The BBC asked a young studio visitor to pose as a winner, thereby making her “complicit” in the deception. The girl was told the correct answer and told to say that she was calling from London, she was a visitor on set with a parent who later filed a complaint, calling the show a scam. This was the first time Ofcom imposed a financial penalty on the BBC due to “serious breaches of the broadcasting code.” 40,000 children had called in to guess the identity of an Eastenders character to partake in the competition. The regulator found Blue Peter’s producers had kept the whole thing under wraps and the show’s editor Richard Marson even congratulated the showrunners for “keeping the show on the road, he was later fired over another controversy regarding the show. Ofcom found that the show had breached two rules: "competitions should be conducted fairly" and "due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under 18". The scandal became public when all proceeds from the Blue Peter competition were given to Unicef in hopes of sweeping the controversy under the rug and avoid public scrutiny.
On-Demand
On-demand allows people to watch whichever programmes they’d like whenever and wherever without being forced to tune in to the exact time a programme is shown. All major broadcasters in the UK have their own on-demand services, albeit not as popular global giants like Netflix: BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD, Demand 5 and Sky Anytime+. These services started becoming available around 2006/2007 as the BBC and Channel ⅘ were the first to launch their on-demand services. On-demand services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon are starting to run the traditional television industry out of business. Online subscriptions services offer different plans, typically within 3 different price ranges - to make it affordable to a mass audience with different annual incomes, and most also include 30-day free trials to entice the user to commit to a subscription without paying for the first month and then charging them monthly. This strategy entices consumers with the impression that they are getting their money’s worth, especially with a free trial period; and this has proven to be an effective business.
The UK television industry produced roughly a revenue of £16.18 billion in 2018, and subscription and on-demand services contributed £6.4 billion, making up nearly 40% of the revenue, and in 2019 Netflix alone had nearly 12.4 million subscribers in the UK. Traditional TV broadcasters like the BBC have launched online streaming services like iPlayer, however, they are not even close to becoming a stronger competitor to Netflix, instead, viewers often choose to watch titles on Netflix and other on-demand services that are also available on BBC iPlayer. In a recent example, the BBC original Fleabag was picked up by Amazon Prime as the showrunner and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge signed an exclusive three-year deal with Prime – speculated to be worth as much as $20m a year – to produce programmes which will launch exclusively on the internet giant’s platform. In an article for The Guardian, Jim Waterson says “British broadcasters who previously had first refusal on projects from British writers are watching as the people they helped develop are tempted away by bigger budgets and the promise of global reach, dismissing the offer of a slot on a mainstream television channel facing declining audiences. “This is prompting British channels to fight back, in the knowledge they can’t compete on budgets. Instead, they are offering writers more creative freedom and promising that their shows will be heavily promoted rather than hidden far down the algorithmically driven home pages of major streaming services. “Many successful British shows – including Fleabag and Bodyguard – are already made as co-productions with US-owned streaming services, with a UK broadcaster sharing the production costs and getting the first rights to show a programme. Netflix or Amazon Video then have the right to show the programme in the rest of the world.” Steven Knight said that even though he was loyal to the BBC, it was the distribution of his show Peaky Blinders that helped make it a global hit: “Because of Netflix you’re available in 138 countries.”
One of the bigger advantages of using on-demand services is the matter of scheduling programmes. Traditional TV employs a TV scheduler whose job it is to predict when viewers will be watching and making sure that the channel carries on smoothly. They consider demographics and ratings to gather data on when and which viewers watch what programmes through which medium. However, on-demand services are much more accessible and with constantly evolving technological advancements they are only going to get easier to access. One of the biggest reasons on-demand services are growing more popular is because they offer customers a tailored experience in choosing what they want to watch, when and where, and the simply mammoth catalogue of programmes is able to target niche audiences more accurately. They also invest a lot more in continually creating fresh content for an active audience they often interact with online through social media like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. These streaming giants know their audience and give their creative teams the funds and artistic freedom they need to create high-quality content, whereas more traditional broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV may be more restrictive in what is broadcast since they have a reputation to uphold.
One of the bigger advantages of using on-demand services is the matter of scheduling programmes. Traditional TV employs a TV scheduler whose job it is to predict when viewers will be watching and making sure that the channel carries on smoothly. They consider demographics and ratings to gather data on when and which viewers watch what programmes through which medium. However, on-demand services are much more accessible and with constantly evolving technological advancements they are only going to get easier to access. One of the biggest reasons on-demand services are growing more popular is because they offer customers a tailored experience in choosing what they want to watch, when and where, and the simply mammoth catalogue of programmes is able to target niche audiences more accurately. They also invest a lot more in continually creating fresh content for an active audience they often interact with online through social media like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. These streaming giants know their audience and give their creative teams the funds and artistic freedom they need to create high-quality content, whereas more traditional broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV may be more restrictive in what is broadcast since they have a reputation to uphold.
Theories
Cultivation Theory
Cultivation theory examines the long-term effects of television. "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television." Cultivation theory was founded by George Gerbner and Larry Gross in 1975 and is positivistic, which means that this theory assumes the existence of objective reality and value-neutral research. It explores how images and ideological messages transmitted through popular television media heavily influence perceptions of the real world. |
Hypodermic Needle Model
"The Hypodermic needle model is a linear communication theory that suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of passive audiences. In this theory the media is seen as powerful and able to ‘inject’ ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive and could be influenced by a message. In Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and during World War 2 films were used to ‘inject’ propaganda ideas promoting the Nazi cause to the German audience. Today we still see party political broadcasts on television during elections. The Hypodermic theory comes from a fear of the mass media, and gives the media much more power than it can ever have in a democracy. The concept ignores the idea that not everyone in an audience behaves in the same way. How can an audience be passive –there will be many times when you have disagreed with something you have seen on television or failed to laugh at a comedy show or just thought a TV programme was terrible." (revisionworld.com) |
Uses & Gratifications Theory
Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratification theory "discusses the effects of the media on people. It explains how people use the media for their own need and get satisfied when their needs are fulfilled. In other words, it can be said that the theory argues what people do with media rather than what media does to people. Also, this theory is in contradiction to the Magic Bullet theory, which states that the audience is passive. This theory has a user/audience-centered approach. Even for communication, say – interpersonal, people refer to the media for the topic to discuss among themselves. By referring the media, they gain more knowledge and exposure to the world beyond their limited eyesight." (communicationtheory.org) |
Two-Step Flow
"The Two Step Flow Theory suggests that opinion leaders pay close attention to the mass media and pass on their interpretation of media messages to others. Unlike the Hypodermic Needle Theory, The Two Step Flow Theory maintains that audiences are active participants in the communication process. The Two Step Flow Theory is also of interest to the advertising industry. A long time ago, advertisers realized that word of mouth and recommendations are a powerful way to sell products. Books like The Anatomy of Buzz are all about how important word of mouth is to advertising campaigns. A lot of campaigns set out to use personal influence by targeting opinion leaders. Anecdotally, this is something we can probably all relate to – we’re more likely to buy a product if it’s been recommended by a friend or someone that we trust." (lessonbucket.com) |
Drip-Drip Effect
The drip-drip effect refers to the notion that mass media contributes towards gradual changes in society on a long term basis, either in individual attitudes or behaviour, often among heavy watches of television, or in the form of social changes alongside other social forces. For example: the '90s American sitcom '"Ellen" was one of the first majorly popular sitcoms to feature an openly gay main character and was watched by an estimated 42 million people. Ellen DeGeneres starred as herself and her show opened doors for the many gay characters on TV since then, including those in "Will & Grace," "The L Word," and "Queer as Folk," presenting the LGBTQ+ community in a positive light. |
Reception Theory
"Stuart Hall developed reception theory, popularly known as Audience Theory or reader’s reception theory, in 1973. His essay ‘Encoding and Decoding Television Discourse’ focuses on the encoding and decoding of the content given to the audience no matter the form of media such as magazines/papers, television/radios, games. Today theorists who do the analysis of media through reception theory often derive results from the experience of an audience created by watching a cinema, game or books." (communicationtheory.org) There are three main kinds of readings: dominant/preferred, negotiated and oppositional. A dominant reading is how the producer wants the audience to view the product; negotiated refers to a compromise between the dominated and oppositional reading wherein the viewer agrees some of what the producer wants to present and disagrees with some other aspects of the product or has their own opinions. An oppositional reading is when the audience completely rejects the producer's idea and creates its own meaning for the product. |