As a polysemic text, television has the power to inspire a range of interpretations according to the encoding of the producers and the decoding of the televisual consumer. As first described by Stuart Hall in Encoding/Decoding, and then by Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch in Television as a Cultural Forum there exist three basic categories of potential readings of a singular text within the broad range of potential interpretations: dominant or preferred, negotiated, and oppositional, each of which depends on the ideological, political, and social position of the interpreter, as well as their experiences, which makes them, according to Newcomb and Hirsch cultural interpreters, or cultural bricoleurs. As such, Documentary Now! elicits three …show more content…
The band in the episode, The Blue Jean Committee, is modelled after the Eagles and other 1970s California soft rock bands, exemplified in the songs they play within the episode, such as “Catalina Breeze”, a blatant parody of “California Dreamin” by The Mamas and Papas. As such, the episode parodies this entire genre and era of rock n’ roll. Furthermore, the episode derives meaning from the intertextual roles of the show’s creators and stars Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Seth Meyers, who have prominent careers in contemporary television. Each of these men starred together on Saturday Night Live, a show built on parody and intertextual humor. Thus, audiences, if they are familiar with the creators and stars, are primed to decode the episode as a similarly light-hearted parody based on their previous knowledge. These audience expectations are reinforced by the creators’ other roles on television, which also include parodies, such as, Seth Meyers’ job hosting Late Night and Fred Armisen’s other show. Portlandia, on IFC, a network known for its parodic programs. Viewers’ knowledge of these circumstances affects the ways in which they decode the episode “Gentle and Soft” according to Newcomb and Hirsch, who insist, in their forum concept, that in viewing television, members of the audience bring their own knowledge, experience, and concerns to the texts, which they examine, select, and make
How many people today watch family sitcoms to imitate or compare values with their own? Probably not as many as there were in the 1950s. In Stephanie Coontz's "What We Really Miss about the 1950s", she discusses why people feel more nostalgic towards growing up in the 1950s, and how she disagrees that 1950s wasn't the decade that we really should like or remember best. Apart from economic stability, family values played an important part then. Through television sitcoms, such as "Leave it to Beaver", "Father knows Best", families watched them to make sure they were living correctly. It was like guidance and somewhat reassurance. However, values of families have changed, and this is shown on sitcoms today. We watch sitcoms today for
Television invented in the late year of 1927. One of the world’s greatest inventions, but just because TV is a great invention, doesn’t mean it’s always the best thing for the audience. Here are some pros, cons, and my opinion on TV.
In chapter 7, Mittell deconstructs how the representation is applied to television. He covers the how television can represent America’s national character and how television can be a type of cultural representation of society, where opinions and ideas are represented through television programs. Mittell continues to deconstruct the various connections between representation and television in Chapter 8. In this chapter, he goes into detail about how representation in television function as a part of a larger cultural politics can be quantified using identity. Mittell talks about how identity in television is quantified and analyzed and he discusses the shortcomings of each.
In the article, The Trouble with Television by Robert Mac Neil, there is fantastic evidence and reasoning to support his claims that television is a negative influence on our society. For example, in paragraph 9 or 10, Mac Neil states, “One study estimates that some 30 million adult Americans are functionally illiterate and cannot read or write well enough to answer a want ad or understand the instructions on a medicine bottle.” This supports his claims that television contributes to illiteracy. Notice how I underlined contributes. The text states on the next paragraph, “While I would not be so simplistic as to suggest that television is the cause, I believe that it contributes and is an influence.” Keep that in mind as we look through
Deviance is a behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction (Ferris & Stein 154). The television Jane The Virgin embodies this sociological theory and is intended for an audience of young and older adults. Types of deviance that is featured is that Jane Villanueva who has hopes of being a teacher and author goes to the doctors for a routine physical examination. However, while there she accidentally gets artificially inseminated. The intended specimen was intended for a patient in the next room, the situation becomes even more shocking. In fact, the donor is Jane’s boss Rafael Solano whom she had a crush on a few years prior.
The 1960’s was and important time in American history. Television became popular. John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president and a few years later was assassinated. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced. The psychedelic movement 1960’s. The Vietnam War. Despite all the things that was happening in the 1960’s it was still a great and bad time of that era.
“Television is a gift of God and God will hold those who utilize his divine instrument accountable to him” -Philo T. Farnsworth. In the 1920’s life in America, and around the world, was blossoming with excitement and shock due to all the new things happening around them. For instance, women were re-imagining the rules of feminism, alcohol was being banned everywhere, secret clubs were being brought up, and also the television coming to life. The television had to be the most talked about thing in the 1920’s. All because a random guy decided he wanted to experiment with things and later created the television.
Technology in the 1950s started with many great innovations that shape the way we live now. Probably the most important innovation of television was the introduction of cable T.V., television broadcasting, sitcoms and talk shows. Television went though many changes in its younger years. The way T.V. Developed in the early years is the foundation for what we watched now days. Transitory radios became very popular in the fact that Music could be heard in any location because it was now portable. Still T.V. Innovations were what the 1950s were all about from a technology and the birth of the T.V. show.
For Americans, the 1960’s were a time of both unnerving turmoil and exciting change. Following on the heels of the 1950’s themes of tradition and conformity, the contrasting events and attitudes in the sixties constituted a perfect storm leading to a reconstruction of American social, cultural, and political ideals. Although each decade has experienced identifying features, events occurring during the sixties provided for a definitive coming of age era for the United States. While much of this revolution can be attributed to the events themselves, the medium used for disseminating these ideas bears some of the responsibility. Throughout the decade television replaced radio and newspaper as the primary source of news and entertainment.
What role does television play in society? For decades we have seen many parts of our world rapidly going through changes in technology. Today’s society has been transformed by means of communication and the available information through mass media. Most Americans rely on television for news, sports, and entertainment. Television is just one of the many examples of how technology has changed our lives. Since the invention of the television in the early 1900’s, it has played a very important role in our lives. Having a television set in the home has become very essential in today’s society. We depend on it to entertain us with its sitcoms and to inform us about current world issues. The
The difference between the intended meaning of media texts and what the audience actually perceives can be shockingly different. Producers of media can do everything possible to force audiences to experience their work in the way they want them to, but in the end they still take away many different meanings even within the same audience. Stuart Hall outlines this in his encoding and decoding model. One of the most apparent examples of this is the television show South Park. The television show South Park is a media text with the producers’ preferred meaning of being decoded as joke or as being satire, but many audience members take an oppositional stance of taking it seriously. This is clear from the examples of controversy when South Park aired episodes focused on Scientology, red-headed people, and Islam. Through these examples it is demonstrated that the producers of media have less power compared to the audience in determining the meaning of media.
The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The
History of television and its influence on people lives. How did television revolutionize the world?
Can T.V. shows be the reflection of our society or influence the behavior of the members of our community? Since 1936 when television broadcasting begin, it priority was to inform and to entertain our society; subsequently, a massive amount of rules and regulations were created to control the material presented in TV, which principal goal was to safeguard the moral and ethical standards of it time. Nevertheless, from its beginning to the present home entertainment television standards contents have change; likewise, the moral an ethics values of our society have change and continuing changing from generation to generation. TV shows from the 50’s, 80’s, and the present exposed many changes in the way human role are exposed, the language
What do we really mean by television? The way we watch television has drastically changed over the last fifteen years due to new technologies such as digital television and services providing on-demand access. These drastic changes have had a huge effect on viewers and have “allowed online streaming platforms to dominate and revolutionize the way the audience consumes” (Aliloupour) media, ultimately allowing the viewer to be in total control of how, when and where they want their content. The idea of only being able to watch television on a television set is now a thing of the past. Due to technology, the audience now has a vast variety of options on how they can access content. By using scholarly articles, research in new media and Internet sites I will be analyzing current television and where the future of television will be heading.