‘The main function of a media text is to entertain its audience.’ How true is this for your three main texts?
Knee jerk reaction - yes!! But also no. Producers must balance entertainment with more manipulative and distressing elements
Plan
A stranger comes to town
Dog scene - woman enters
Killer whales
Uses and grats
Escapism
Genre conventions
Anthropomorphisation
Verisimilitude
Reception theory
Voyeurism
Positioning
Cultivation
Similar lifestyle
Themetunes
Transgressive
Negotiation
Introduction - DAC
Definition - Entertainment is one of the most important factors a producer must consider when constructing a media product. The producer must consider entertainment in order to appeal to a range of audiences, and ultimately to make a profit. Argument - I shall argue that the main function of the texts I have studied is to entertain their audience. However, in each TV show, there are scenes which are deliberately not entertaining and even transgressive for the audience. Producers must therefore balance entertainment with more manipulative elements. Context - In order to explore this argument, I will be looking at Westworld, a 2016 scifi/western hybrid produced by HBO, The Jeremy Kyle Show, a reality chat show broadcast 15th March 2018 on ITV1, and Blue Planet II, a nature documentary originally broadcast on Sundays at 9pm on BBC1.
Westworld - A stranger comes to town
- Westworld polarises audiences in order to build a cult fanbase.
- Acoustic, western themed cover of a Rolling Stones song, functions as a referential code
- Elaborate costumes evoke the western genre while also making reference to the sci-fi genre
- Double mode of address provides one audience with an exciting heist scene, but provides others with the pleasures of a postmodern deconstruction of narrative. Two narratives followed through the use of parallel editing. The British character serves as the producer, manipulating the characters. Highly unconventional.
- Transgressive elements - C/U of exploding face provides the audience with a voyeuristic, escapist pleasure. Pleasure at seeing the aggressive man ("sweet little bitch") murdered by Maude, which arguably encodes an ideology of female empowerment. Dark comedy.
- MS - Teddy and Dolores - CU of Teddy's face emphasises not only the emotionally manipulating character arc of Teddy and Dolores, forms a binary opposition to the comedic Hector scene
- However, an oppositional response would be frustration and confusion, distaste at the dark comedy, and disgust at the level of gore and violence.
Blue Planet II - Orca whales
- Nature documentary, suggests purpose is to educate the audience. However Blue Planet II functions primarily to entertain it's audience.
- Orchestral, non-diegetic soundtrack has connotations of action and thriller generic paradigms. Composed by Hans Zimmer, famous for collaborations with Christopher Nolan. Impactful and escapist.
- Bass intensifies at the emergence of the humpback whale, a new antagonist, forming a disequilibrium
- Use of pleonastic sound effects intensifies the power and aggression of the whales
- Use of innovative technology, sucker cameras allows POV shots positioning the audience with the whales.
- Anthropomorphisation allows audience to connect with the animal characters
- Use of CU provides audience with voyeuristic pleasure
- Celebrity status of David Attenborough. Softly spoken and upper class connoting intelligence and trustworthiness. Reinforces hegemonic assumptions of class and wealth.
Conclusion
As I have illustrated, in each case the function of these TV programmes is to entertain it's target audience. Westworld entertains it's audience by providing it with a variety of transgressive and escapist themes. However, it clearly is not a show that will appeal to all audiences, reinforcing it's status as a cult TV show. Blue Planet II on the other hand entertains it's audience through of a combination of camera shots, an exciting soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer and the narration of David Attenborough. In these ways, I have proved that the main function of a media product is indeed to entertain it's audience.
Cheers P block for this analysis!