TV Comedy: Audience Pleasures

The type of audience pleasures you need to write about in the exam include:

• narrative pleasures such as those of narrative resolution, 
• character identification, snowballing narrative, suspense, comedy, and so on
• pleasures of recognition, familiarity and anticipation
• pleasures of difference-within-repetition
• performance unpredictability and spontaneity
• transgressive pleasures
• specific pleasures associated with performers or personalities.

TV channels - BBC 1

Our mission, vision, and values inform the work of the BBC and are how we promote our public purposes.

The public purposes are set out by the Royal Charter and Agreement, the constitutional basis for the BBC.

Our mission

•  To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.

Our vision

• To be the most creative organisation in the world.

Our values

• Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest.
• Audiences are at the heart of everything we do.
• We take pride in delivering quality and value for money.
• Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation.
• We respect each other and celebrate our diversity so that everyone can give their best.
• We are one BBC: great things happen when we work together.
• The Royal Charter and Agreement also sets out six public purposes for the BBC. See Public purposes.

We run nine national TV services providing entertainment, news, current affairs and arts coverage for the whole of the UK.

Our output is available via digital TV, live online via channel websites and as video-on-demand via BBC iPlayer.

BBC One

On BBC One you'll find news and current affairs, drama, comedy and entertainment programmes.

Audience Demographic Categories

TV Channels

Channel 4 (Friday Night Dinner)

Channel 4 was established with, and continues to hold, a remit of public service obligations which it must fulfil. The remit changes periodically, as dictated by various broadcasting and communications acts, and is regulated by the various authorities Channel 4 has been answerable to; originally the IBA, then the ITC and now Ofcom.

The preamble of the remit as per the Communications Act 2003 states that:

"The public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular: demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes; appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;

makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and

exhibits a distinctive character."[5][15]

The remit also involves an obligation to provide programming for schools,[16] and a substantial amount of programming produced outside of Greater London.[17]

BBC3 (Bad Education)

BBC Three is a television channel from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16–34-year-old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent and new technologies.[1] The channel is on-air from 7 pm to around 4 am each night,[1] to share terrestrial television bandwidth with CBBC.

Research for Scheduling Question (4a)

4. (a) Compare how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels.

State the day, time and channel of each programme.

• Who commissioned the programmes?
• Who produced them?
• What audience are they aimed at? Why?
• Why are they on at that time and on that channel? Link to 'type' of comedy and target audience. 
• Are they on after the watershed? Why?
• Know the audience demographic

You must know:

1. day 
2. time
3. channel

for both programmes (Friday Night Dinner and Bad Education).

Extension work:

• Research original scheduling (time of broadcast) for both programmes and any subsequent scheduling that may be different. 
• Account for the reasons why the programmes were broadcast on their particular days. If this changed from series to series comment on this too.

Exam Paper January 2013 (Hancock)

OCR Exam Paper (Jan 2013) Unit b322 01 Textual Analysis and Media Studies Topic Moving Image

TV Comedy: Scheduling Question (4a)

4. (a) Compare how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels.

State the day, time and channel on which the two programmes were scheduled. [15 marks]

Include details about the demographic groups and information on the remit of the channels.

Exam Paper June 2012 (Hurt Locker)

OCR Exam Paper (2012 HURT LOCKER) Unit b322 01 Textual Analysis and Media Studies Topic Moving Image

Stuart Hall’s ‘Audience Reception Theory’ 2

Stuart Hall’s ‘Audience Reception Theory’

Hall argues that the media appear to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it. He also addressed theoretically the issue of how people make sense of media texts. 

In a key paper, 'Encoding/Decoding', Stuart Hall (1980), argued that the dominant ideology is typically inscribed as the 'preferred reading' in a media text, but that this is not automatically adopted by readers. 

The social situations of readers/viewers/listeners may lead them to adopt different stances. 'Dominant' readings are produced by those whose social situation favours the preferred reading; 'negotiated' readings are produced by those who inflect the preferred reading to take account of their social position; and 'oppositional' readings are produced by those whose social position puts them into direct conflict with the preferred reading Hall insists that there remain limits to interpretation: meaning cannot be simply 'private' and 'individual'.

Theory: Katz, Hartley and Maslow

Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory

• Personal Identification – Where the audience can relate to a character or their situation
• Personal Relationship – Where the audience builds a close bond with a character or group of characters
• Inform & Educate – Where the audience LEARN something from consuming the text
• Diversion – Where the audience can ESCAPE from their reality and immerse themselves in the text.

 Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Class
4. Ethnicity
5. Self-Image
6. Nation
7. Family

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Social Climbers– Where the audience are driven by improving their status in society
• Caregivers– Where the audience sympathise with the characters situation.
• Explorers– Where the audience are driven by social change.
• Survivors – Audience members who want the security and routine of knowing the characters will be ok (For example) or something will be resolved.

Miranda Research

1. What channel is Miranda initially broadcast on?
2. What other comedies (sitcoms/scripted comedies) does this channel broadcast?
3. What is the target audience for Miranda? Give three clear reasons for your this.
4. Who are the cast?
5. How do they appeal to the target audience?
6. What shows have the main cast members appeared in before?
7. What time is Miranda first broadcast?
8. Why do you think it is broadcast at such a time?
9. When is Miranda repeated?
10. What channels is it repeated on?
11. What is it about the setting of the show that appeals to the target audience?
12. What has the critical reception been? Find some reviews of the show. Are they good, bad or mixed?
13. In your opinion, in what ways is Miranda 'funny'.
14. What pleasure does Miranda offer an audience? These might include such pleasures as:

• narrative pleasures such as those of narrative resolution, 
• character identification, snowballing narrative, suspense, comedy, and so on
• pleasures of recognition, familiarity and anticipation
• pleasures of difference-within-repetition
• performance unpredictability and spontaneity
• transgressive pleasures
• specific pleasures associated with performers or personalities.

Bad Education Research

1. What channel is Bad Education initially broadcast on?
2. What other comedies (sitcoms/scripted comedies) does this channel broadcast?
3. What is the target audience for Bad Education? Give three clear reasons for your this.
4. Who are the cast?
5. How do they appeal to the target audience?
6. What shows have the main cast members appeared in before?
7. What time is Bad Education first broadcast?
8. Why do you think it is broadcast at such a time?
9. When is Bad Education repeated?
10. What channels is it repeated on?
11. What is it about the setting of the show that appeals to the target audience?
12. What has the critical reception been? Find some reviews of the show. Are they good, bad or mixed?
13. In your opinion, in what ways is Bad Education 'funny'.
14. What pleasure does Bad Education offer an audience? These might include such pleasures as:

• narrative pleasures such as those of narrative resolution, 
• character identification, snowballing narrative, suspense, comedy, and so on
• pleasures of recognition, familiarity and anticipation
• pleasures of difference-within-repetition
• performance unpredictability and spontaneity
• transgressive pleasures
• specific pleasures associated with performers or personalities.

Year 11 Half Term Homework

• Complete the research into Bad Education.
• Hand your work in on the first lesson back after half term: Wednesday 29th October Period 1

TV Comedy: Research

1. List all the BBC channels.
2. What is the target audience for each channel?
3. How do they all differ?
4. What type of programmes do they tend to show? List five of the most popular for each channel. Classify the programmes by genre.
5. List all the ITV channels.
6. What is the target audience for each channel?
7. How do they all differ?
8. What type of programmes do they tend to show? List five of the most popular for each channel. Classify the programmes by genre.
9. List all the Channel 4 channels.
10. What is the target audience for each channel?
11. How do they all differ?
12. What type of programmes do they tend to show? List five of the most popular for each channel. Classify the programmes by genre.