Critical Reflections on Audience and Narrativity E-Book

• Herausgeber: ibidem
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 459

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

"Critical Reflections on Audience and Narrativity—New connections, New perspectives" offers an interdisciplinary and multicultural approach to fiction, reality, and narrativity applied to television series from all over the world. Dissecting the almost invisible barrier between fiction and reality in TV series from various perspectives, the chapters cover a wide range of contemporary classics from the post-network age. From "The X-Files" and "Desperate Housewives" to "The Wire" and "Breaking Bad", the chapters sketch TV series` development from the lowest form of mass entertainment to the sophisticated vehicle of highbrow intertextuality on a global scale. Also covering many international cases from Brazil, Serbia, Romania, and Turkey and locating them in the global web of puzzle narratives, the unique contributions draw connections between the most diverse audiences and the way they receive modern storytelling in a culturally globalized world. This timely volume is a great resource for anyone interested in contemporary mass culture.

Leseprobe

ibidem Press, Stuttgart 

Contents

Does the cultural capital compensate for the cultural discount?

Why do German students prefer US-American TV series?Daniela Schluetz, Beate Schneider

Awake, or the multiplication of the realities Contemporary Television Series:Narrative Structures and Audience PerceptionMathieu Pierre

“Three hundred channels and nothing's on”:Metaleptic Genre-Mixing in SupernaturalMichael Fuchs

Appreciating Nietzsche in Episodic Drama:The Highbrow Intertextuality and Middlebrow Reception of Criminal MindsMichael Wayne

The Seed of an Idea and its Cognitive Field:Minding the Gap of Alternate Reality in Flash Forward and FringeInbar Kaminsky

Breaking Narrative: Narrative Complexity in Contemporary TelevisionOliver Kroener

The Walking Dead and the Truly Monstrous... on TelevisionAtene Mendelyte

Television Cosmo-Mythologies: The Return to Mythological Narativesin Television Fiction, from The Prisoner to Lost Raquel Crisóstomo Gálvez, Enric Ros Zofío

Breaking Bad, a Character-Based Formula Rodrigo Mesonero

Representing Occupations in Media and Audience Perceptions of TV Series Valentina Marinescu

Homeland: War on Terror Revisited Marc Perelló-Sobrepere

Understanding Health in Grey's Anatomy Television Series Bianca Mitu

Fiction Television in Brazil: New PerspectivesLilian Fontes Moreira

TV Series Bolji život (1987–1991): View from the Future Natasa Simeunovic Bajic

The X-Factor of Singing Competitions TV SeriesMaria Dicieanu

TV Drama as a Narrative form: Scenes from a Gendered anda Sacralized Cultural Sphere in Turkish SocietyNuran E. Işık

The hero's journey María Teresa Nicolás Gavilán, Lourdes López Gutiérrez,Carmen Silvia Sánchez Arana, Tania Alejandra Benítez Sánchez

About the contributors

Doesthecultural capital compensate forthecultural discount? WhydoGerman students preferUS-American TV series?

DanielaSchluetz,BeateSchneider

ManyEuropeancountries but alsoother countries worldwideexperience a predominance of US-American TV products. This is mainly due totheglobalization effects rather thanto theaudience'schoice because viewers usually prefer products that are culturally proximate (Straubhaar, 1991). German television ratings confirm thissituation(Zubayr& Gerhard, 2011) with the exception of younger, well-educated viewers who seem to favor US-American fictional television content (Zubayr& Gerhard, 2010), particularly series (Gerhards&Klingler, 2009). In this paper, we examine cultural proximity from an audience point of view posing thefollowingquestion: how do younghighly educated viewers evaluate non-nationally produced TV series?Germany serves as a case studyfor the present study.

In the last 20 to 30 years, US-American content has become an important part of television programming in Europe and especially in Germany—both quantitatively and qualitatively speaking. Since the establishment of the commercial television sector in 1984, more and more television channels have distributed more and more content—much of which originates from the USA (EuropäischeAudiovisuelleInformationsstelle, 2010). All over Europe, the share of national fictional TV programs is on decline (Hallenberger, 2005). To a large extent, this is a reflection of economic globalization effects of television production and distribution as purchasing content is often less expensive than producing it. Thus, the predominance of US formats seems to depend on structural reasons rather than audience choice:“More than audience tastes, trade practices and costs better explain the content of schedules” (Waisbord, 2004, p. 369).Nevertheless, with almost a third of the total programming, Germany has the highest percentage of nationally produced fictionalcontent in Europe (Hallenberger, 2005, p.15). German productions are the domain of public television channels (ARD/ZDF) while commercial channels broadcastless German productions.

Indigenous productions, expensive as they might be,they deserve the pricebecause viewers usually prefer“home grown” television products. This can be explained by the concept of ‘cultural proximity’ brought forward byStraubhaar(1991; 2002; see also de Sola Pool, 1977).Straubhaarargues that a discussion about globalization disregards the influence of audiences'national identities in selecting and interpreting cultural products (2002, p. 182). By several Latin American case studies, he shows that audiences tend to prefer national entertainment products to foreign ones, for instance Hollywood productions. Viewers actively look for cultural cues in TV productions and derive pleasure out of symbols and practices they can relate to. That is why national formats are appreciated more. Non-national genres are more popular if they are linked to a similar culture connected by, for instance, language, geography or history and values (LaPastina&Straubhaar, 2005). AsStraubhaarputs it:“Since the 1990's it has almost become commonplace to say that audiences prefer culture-specific or national television programs that are as close to them as possible in language, ethnic appearance, dress, style, humor, historical reference, and shared topical knowledge.” (2008, p. 15) Language,Straubhaarargues, is the most important factor, with some genres such as comedies relying more on it thantheothers. One may call it the smallest common denominator for cultural proximity (cf.Ksiazek& Webster, 2008). Language is not the only relevant factor, though. The US-American TV industry even adapts formats from the British market (see the example of ‘The Office’,Beeden& de Bruin, 2010) and in Germany, for instance, national programs are more popular although all foreign content is dubbed (Tinchev, 2010). The concept of cultural proximity, however, has been challenged by the widespread availability and global appeal of US-American fictional productions (cf. Kerr & Flynn, 2003).

A lack of cultural proximity leads to ‘cultural discount’ (Hoskins &Mirus, 1988). This concept argues that a“particular program rooted in one culture, and thus attractive in that environment, will have a diminishedappeal elsewhere as viewers find it difficult to identify with the style, values, beliefs, institutions and behavioral patterns of the material in question. Included in the cultural discountarereductions in appreciation due to dubbing or subtitling. […] As a result of the diminished appeal, fewer viewers will watch a foreign program than a domestic program of the same type and quality.” (Hoskins &Mirus, 1988, p. 500) Thus, US-American series should be less appealing to foreign audiences than their own. There seems to be empirical support for this argument in Germany (cf.Zubayr& Gerhard, 2011): The top 15 in television ratings 2009 comprised only German fictional films. In 2008, only one US-American production entered the top ten (‘Ice Age 2’;Zubayr& Gerhard, 2010, p 116). The same was true for television series (Zubayr& Gerhard, 2010, p. 117). The rule, however, does not seem to apply to all audience groups. Younger viewers preferred US-American series like ‘The Simpsons’ (Gerhards&Klingler, 2009, p. 674). Table 1 shows ratings and market shares of younger, highly educated viewers in Germany. Their 2009 top ten in television ratings included only two German productions: ‘Stromberg’, which is the German version of ‘The Office’, and ‘Doctor's Diary’ (a comedy/drama series, comparable to ‘Scrubs’; original title in English) (cf. Table 1).

Why is it that young, well-educated Germans prefer foreign, particularly US-American TV content regardless of cultural discount? We want to propose two possible explanations for this preference which might apply to other, non-US-American nations as well. The first one is related to the texts in question. Hoskins andMirus(1988) argue that US program exports have a rather low cultural discount due to high production values and undemanding content. Therefore, they lend themselves to worldwide distribution. Olson (1999) adds the concept of ‘narrative transparency’ of US-American television texts that open them to ‘different readings’ (Hall, 1992; cf. Fiske's notion of ‘polysemy’, 1987). Varying audiences can thereby relate to the text and identify with the personae based on their individual interpretation and sense making of the text:“Transparency is the capability of certain texts to seem familiar regardless of their origin, to seem a part of one's own culture, even though they have been crafted elsewhere.” (Olson, 1999, p. 18) The consequence of transparency in atelevision program is its appeal to a larger and more diverse audience—as is the case with many US-American TV series.

Table 1: Top ten TV series on German TV 2009

Adults 18–28 years with highereducation

(2.73 Mio.,N

Adults 14–49 years

(35.56 Mio.,N

Top 10

Channel

Origin

Rating in Mio.

Market Share in %

Rating in Mio.

Market Share in %