Chapter 1 - Studying Televison

Question 0

What is an example of non-broadcast radio?

Answer 0

• Surveillance video made by retailers or police

- Wedding or family holiday videos

Question 1

What does broadcast mean?

Answer 1

The transmission of signals from a central source which can be received by dispersed receivers over a large geographical area

Question 2

What is the definition of ‘reality TV’?

Answer 2

Programmes where the unscripted behaviour of ‘ordinary people’ is the focus of interest

Question 3

Is video shown at live events such as football games and or Rock concerts considered as television?

Answer 3

No, because of the specialised venue and non-broadcast transmission

Question 4

What is one of the conventions broadcast television such as MTV uses to create the atmosphere of being at a live event?

Answer 4

Mist and lighting effects

Question 5

What is ‘art video’?

Answer 5

The use of video technology in artistic work intended for gallery exhibition

Question 6

What is the definition of avant-garde?

Answer 6

Work aiming to challenge the norms and conventions of the medium, and the group of people making such work

Question 7

What is one of the reasons that English-language television programmes are exported around the world?

Answer 7

They are shown either with subtitles or with a dubbed soundtrack

Question 8

What different language channels are shown in America?

Answer 8

English and Spanish

Question 9

How was televisions oral mode regarded by Fiske and Hartley?

Answer 9

Deriving from organic culture of people’s own communities and everyday lives and a representation of people’s vigorous popular culture

Question 10

What are some functions of a trailer?

Answer 10

• Inform audiences about what will be available in the future
• Shape the viewers expectations about what a future programme will be like
• Offer suggestions of what might be interesting or enjoyable

Question 11

What are indents?

Answer 11

The symbols representing production companies, television channels, etc., often comprising graphics or animations

Question 12

What is the importance of indents to companies?

Answer 12

Frequently repeated channel or brand indents give brand identity and recognition by audiences

Question 13

What is public service in television?

Answer 13

The provision of a mix of programmes that inform, educate and entertain in ways that encourage the betterment of audiences and society in general

Question 14

What is public television?

Answer 14

Television funded by government or by private supporters, rather than solely by advertising

Question 15

What is a key way in which television differs from cinema?

Answer 15

Television has always placed emphasis on witnessing events that happen in the real world

Question 16

What is the literal meaning of the word ‘television’?

Answer 16

Seeing from afar

Question 17

What is the ‘public sphere’?

Answer 17

The world of politics, economic affairs and national and international events, as opposed to the ‘private sphere’ of domestic life

Question 18

What is ‘public speech’?

Answer 18

Parliament, academia, the judicial system

Question 19

What is ‘private speech’?

Answer 19

Gossip, everyday talk, the language of subcultural groups

Question 20

What are the two debated assumptions about television?

Answer 20

1. TV should provide resources to answer people’s needs and raise cultural standards
2. Television should give people what the majority seem to want and what makes the most profit

Question 21

What does format mean in TV?

Answer 21

The blueprint for a programme, including its setting, main characters, genre, form and main themes

Question 22

What is commissioning?

Answer 22

The process by which an idea for a programme is selected to go into production

Question 23

What is ‘audience share’?

Answer 23

The percentage of viewers estimated to have watched one channel as opposed to another channel broadcasting at the same time

Question 24

What is audience research used for in the television industry?

Answer 24

Identifying new markets for consumer products, survey current users of products and measure sales and reactions to products

Question 25

Which television forms might be of interest to feminist television theorists?

Answer 25

• Soap operas

- Cooking/art/home improvement shows

Question 26

What is fan culture?

Answer 26

The activities of groups of fans, as distinct from ‘ordinary’ viewers

Question 27

What is an active audience?

Answer 27

Television audiences regarded not as passive consumers of meanings but as negotiating meanings for themselves that are often resistant to those meanings that are intended or that are discovered by close analysis

Question 28

What does Television Studies focus on?

Answer 28

Broadcast television, but new ways of delivering television to viewers are now appearing

Question 29

What has television aimed to represent?

Answer 29

Unified cultures, though it also has regional and ethnic characteristics

Question 30

What does British and other countries television place emphasis on?

Answer 30

Public service functions and representing society to itself

Question 31

What is a way of distinguishing television viewing from that of other media, such as cinema?

Answer 31

The flow of programming and audiences’ experience of this flow