MS4 - A Grade Exam Response: Text, Industry & Audience

Explore the different ways in which audiences and/or users respond to your chosen texts.

Television programmes will have a target demographic that the programme will be aimed for. It is how the programme appeals and captures the audiences’ attention, whilst fulfilling their needs that will determine if the programme will be a success.

In the American programme ‘Lost’ by ABC, the directors and producers have made sure that the show attracts the largest demographic possible by having a 14 strong and frequently speaking multicultural ensemble cast. What is interesting about ‘Lost’ is that its main protagonist is a white, middle-aged American doctor called Jack, as the ‘hero’ element in Propp’s character theory.  This theoretically appeals to the strongest demographic in the US, the white male being the more dominant. The main female protagonist is a strong white good looking American named Kate therefore appealing to the female gender. The first two-part episode called ‘Pilot’ was the highest costing first episode ever, costing around $10-14 million dollars and set up the range of characters that make up the ensemble cast. This means that the audience can relate to a member of the cast and fulfil the personal identifications aspect of the uses and gratifications theory.

Also the neutral location of a desert island strengthens the programmes wide demographic as it also appeals to the escapism aspect of entertainment in the uses and gratifications theory. As ‘Lost’ functions around strong enigma codes the audience will tend to stick with the series and become regular and committed viewers.

The programme uses enigma codes for example ‘where have they landed?’, ‘why did they crash?’.  This encourages the audience to carry on watching the series, as Cultivation theory suggests, through its six season life span and also generates discussion and debates on fandom sites such as ‘Lostpedia’, the lost website, forums and social networking such as ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’, by fans known as ‘Lostaways’ or ‘Losties’. This mix of media forms to promote and show TV programmes is an example of the way that convergence theory works. Lost was also the first series to be uploaded onto itunes.

‘The Wire’ itself is a crime genre set in Baltimore USA where the majority of its inhabitants are working/lower class black drug dealers in their teens or at school. I found ‘The Wire’ particularly difficult to watch due to me relating to no personal identity within the programme. I took a very oppositional reading and found myself watching passively as an 18-year-old English white student rather than a white middle-aged male which is ‘The Wire’s’ target demographic. ‘The Wire’ has now become a cult programme with box sets now available in stores such as HMV after being shown late into the night on BBC 2. The programme has developed a large cult following through ‘word of mouth’ and critical acclaim via its appeal and constant referencing by TV presenter Charlie Brooker on ‘Screenwipe’ and The Guardian.

Clearly hitting a more highbrow audience has led to many awards for its challenging narratives and non-stereotypical character constructions. Indeed many of the characters overturn familiar crime conventions by using non-actors who have really experienced the situations that the programme depicts. Its writers too have generally experienced these real-life situations which make the events much more authentic. In the episode that I watched (Season 4 Ep 1) very little actually happened, the dominant criminal character Omar, in the pre-credit sequence, was seen in bed with another male (a clear indication of challenging stereotypes in this genre). He left his house wearing pyjamas and went to local store to get breakfast cereal, therefore creating an enigma. The expectation was that he would encounter trouble or violence, a typical convention of the genre, but this didn’t occur. My response was disappointment, but the target audience would have appreciated this break with convention as more active viewers. 

Also on BBC, Louis Theroux’s Gonzo style documentaries on ‘The Worlds Most Hated Family’ encourages an active participation from the audience as the controversial topic provokes argument and debate. Theroux can be seen as good example of how the BBC remit is fulfilled as his programmes ‘educate, entertain and inform’. They are also extremely popular across the world, winning awards and establishing the BBC as a producer of high quality broadcasting.

Due to Louis Theroux’s style of journalism being subjective he encourages the British demographic to agree with his point of view, taking an oppositional view of his subject- The West Borough Baptist Church. Many viewers will watch Theroux’s interactive documentary style for entertainment, which is unusual due to classic documentaries primary purpose being to inform, another aspect of uses and gratifications theory. Theroux immerses himself in the environment of his subject and allows them reveal themselves; either negatively or positively. This creates tension within the audience and encourages expectation. In this episode Theroux followed the family on its regular and frequent demonstrations against, what they argue are, Un-American activities. The uncomfortable nature of this situation is highly watchable, which is part of the appeal, only later in the programme does Theroux challenge his subject matter. This is the standard format of his documentary style and is key to its popularity, he doesn’t have an agenda and lets things just happen.    

What I personally found that people watched ‘The Worlds Most Hated Family’ was to fulfil their social integration, as Uses and Gratification suggests, so that they could feel a part of a wider community both at college and on social networking sites, and it was successful at achieving this. Many of my peers had viewed the programme and it was a popular source of debate. My other chosen texts Lost and The Wire provide similar gratifications but to vastly different audiences. Lost is far more mainstream entertainment and The Wire can be regarded as highbrow viewing. All programmes though have found their individual target audiences and won critical acclaim as a result.