TV Audiences and Media Theory

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that the study of the mass media and notably television continues to involve a great deal of theory-building. The writer remarks that as Ien Ang points out, much that is theorized or assumed features a large cultural and conceptual gap between television audiences and observing scholars or others to analyze them. The writer maintains that one also needs to bear in mind the care that should be taken to examine particular phenomena, ensuring that one's assumptions are not wholly shaped by theory. The writer further reveals that Ulf Hannerz pointed out how the day of globalization has prompted approaches that are global and also local, in term of continuity and change. Perhaps at no time has it been so important to ensure that one does observe what one is discussing, in terms of local and particular phenomenon. The writer notes that this is played out in this paper's case study.

Outline:
Introduction
An Ethnography of Public TV Viewing
Reflections on TV Audience Freedom
'The Heavy Viewer'
Concluding Remarks

From the Paper:

"In a somewhat shabby area, Ciro's offers a kind of oasis in a well-run, almost upscale facility of reasonable prices. The premises have involved a tavern of some kind for many years catering to a working class area of much early 20th century row housing, most of it quite simple, streets of less costly detached housing and few amenities of kinds appealing to upscale consumers. It is a neighbourhood beset by visible petty crime but also an array of churches, mosques and temples, a low-cost area chosen by diverse new Canadians and others since the 1980s. The management of Ciro's welcome customers of every imaginable social class and background providing that patrons are agreeably behaved, distinct from the same areas large crack cocaine culture whose members are catered to by other drinking establishments. Ciro's was chosen for observation for its feature of both educated and uneducated patrons and for its eternal television screen, forever on, at all hours, usually showing news-feeds or other material of local interest. Large TV screens are situated behind the bar that takes up the establishment's east wall and suspended from the ceiling at the centre of the area used by customers who both stand or make use of tables. The culture of Ciro's is remarkably democratic apart from firm rules against customers who are rude, potentially dangerous, apt to conduct drug deals on site or who otherwise cannot participate in the friendly cooperative attitude that is shared by customers."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ang, Ien. (1994). Understanding Television Audiencehood, in H. Newcomb. Ed. Television - The Critical View. 5th edition. London: Oxford University Press, 367-386.
• Buford, M. and A. Reuben. (1999). Tavern Culture and Television Viewing. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 28: 69-99.
• Hannerz, Ulf. (1996). The Local and the Global - Continuity and Change, in Transnational Connections: Culture, People, Places. London: Routledge, 17-29.
• Jacobs, R.N. (1996). Producing the News, Producing the Crisis - Narrativity, Television and News Work. Media, Cultures and Society. 18: 373-397.
• Jones, Sara Gwenllian. (2003). Web Wars: Resistance, Online Fandom and Studio Censorship, in M. Jancovich and J. Lyons. Eds. Quality Popular Television - Cult TV, the Industry and Fans. London: British Film Institute, 163-177.

More papers on TV Audiences and Media Theory:

• Case Study # 132248 : "A TV Audience at Bloor & Lansdowne, Toronto"
• Book Review # 70744 : "Media Culture"
• Research Proposal # 97582 : "Reality Television"

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