Twin Peaks: Melodramatic Analysis

Throughout the twenty first century, technology is continuously being developed and constantly being advanced. The advancement of technological goods makes pop culture easily exposed and available to most individuals in our society. Although expanding information in mass amounts

In dystopian literature, there are many universal storytelling elements and literary devices that builds onto the theme. This is apparent in Charlie Brooker’s TV show Black Mirror’s Nosedive, where your social media score determines your life. You’re rated out of 5 stars, the higher the rating you have the more successful you are. The lower your rating the less unsuccessful you are. Black Mirror uses universal storytelling elements such as social cohesion. Black Mirror also uses literary devices such as verbal irony, symbolism, and parable.

In 2007, Netflix, an online video rental service founded in the late 1990s, changed courses and began to offer a video on demand streaming service that, though not the first of its kind, profoundly altered the way in which viewers watch and categorize televisual texts in the Post-Network Era of streaming and individualization of television viewing. This influence warrants a reconfiguration of Raymond Williams’ classic theory of flow as well as of Ethan Thompson’s more recent theory, which makes necessary advances by correctly accounting for a shift toward catering to audience tastes, but fails to address the particularities of the streaming platform. This essay argues that what I call “streaming flow”, still encourages continual viewing, but

But most viewers are interested in excitement in their entertainment, which translates into the format and content of the “news” as well as direct entertainment. It is difficult to imagine that television viewers would have watched Truman grow up over almost three decades when even the most engrossing “soap” can not sustain a third of that time period.

The first point Johnson brings up is the idea of complexity in a plot. Referencing older shows, he uses Starsky and Hutch as an example with no depth. It has a couple main characters and a single plot line that is followed the entire time with a very standard buildup to a climax and conclusion. Alternately, as a more complex

Television provides social values as well, with new television shows that create communities of fans that talk about the show.

"Well, looking back on television and film in the 90's I think there was a purity in the narrative. Video games were simpler. You had Contra: the most confusing aspect was the [up up down down left right left right BA BA start] code you had to enter to skip levels but that was as complex as the video game got." He says smiling. "Now we have Halo where you need a user's guide to figure out how to even shoot the gun. He explains. "I think it's the same with movies/TV. Everything just seemed a little simpler and more wholesome back then. And I think we as an audience long to escape the bullshit that can consume all of us and get lost in a fun, no frills story where the loser wins and the boy gets the

Television entertainment is a form of escapism. "It [entertainment] takes us away from our reality and transports us to another world—not our own” (Ghosain). Shows like Breaking Bad and I Love Lucy execute this so effectively because they create a fictitious context in which surreal actions and consequence can be explored. Fictional narrative allows viewers to explore cultural ideology and concepts radically different from reality.

Reality Television is a genre of television programming that documents unscripted situations and actual occurrences. The genre often highlights personal drama and conflict between characters to a much greater extent than other genres. (Lyle, 2008)The paper seeks to analyze the codes and conventions of authenticity used in the TV show American Choppers based in Orange County, New York. This reality-based TV show outlines the lives of Paul Teutul Sr., his son Paul Jr., makers of the universe 's most magnificent, one-off a kind custom chopper built around a specific theme (Mazzarella, 2008). Every scene catches the daily dramatization of this impulsive relationship the father and his son has, who are also a team as they fight impossible due

The Methods used in this paper to assess the reality of the show “The He in the She” is through triangulation of data, such as using critical articles, lectures notes, textbooks, and practical. (Wood, 2014a) The position of this article is that Dr. Temperance Brenan, and her team does not demonstrate the correct method,

This essay will unpack and analysis the provided essay question, beginning with a quote by John Hartley saying, ‘Genres are agents of ideological closure, they limit the meaning potential of a given text’. With this quote in mind, the essay will discuss, with reference scenes from my chosen text of Grey’s Anatomy, to what extent does genre operate to contain the ‘meaning potential’ in television drama. Discussing how limiting certain genre conventions such as; plot, setting, characters, style and iconography can be limiting creatively to an extent because of the genre conventions. As known to public knowledge, genre is best described as ‘type’ and ‘kind’ of choice for a preferred television setting.

Television is one of the newest, fastest growing forms of entertainment to come along in the last one-hundred years. While many argue that the rapid expansion of this genre has caused an increase in lower quality programs (or too much television), others believe that this event is part of the development to coincide with its new audience. Two such articles address different opinions on this issue. Linda Holmes, author of “Television 2015: Is There Really Too Much TV?”, published her article under the popular culture section on NPR’s website. Holmes’s opinion surrounds the premise that due to an immense growth in television programming, it has resulted in a multitude of lesser quality shows. While she agrees that this volume of shows is an undertaking for any individual to watch, Holmes argues it is impossible for a single genre to have too much content.

Darrin Brown, Sharon Lauricella, Aziz Douai and Arshia Zaidi composed a study focusing on the uses and grats of the aforementioned genre as a means of better understanding the relationship between television and its audiences (Brown, Lauricella, Douai, Zaidi, 2000). Blumber and Katz’s theory on uses and gratifications suggest that audience’s choose to watch certain programs as it satisfies a particular need; in other words, people use a program to gratify or please themselves (Who Watches Crime Dramas and Why?, 2012). They identified four main uses and grats: entertainment and diversion, where there is an idea of escapism; surveillance and information, where people have an urge to become more knowledgeable in a particular area; personal identity, where there is a comparison between the characters and audience members; and finally, personal companionship, where audience’s become involved with characters as if they were real (Who Watches Crime Dramas and Why?, 2012). The uses and Gratification theory assumes that audiences use mass media as an outlet for satisfying certain needs and desires (Brown, et. al, 2000). According to another group of scholars, the gratification individuals get when using such media are both social and psychological in nature (Brown, et. al, 2000). In

To compliment narrative elements within a media text directors often utilize a variety of different stylistic elements to enhance their stories. Stylistic elements help the audience get further into the plot and relate themselves to the characters and their experiences. Stylistic elements thrive at “creating the scene” because they are directly responsible for the sets at which the story is taking place, the outfits worn which correlate with whats happening, as well as the music that plays in the background to fill the scene with different emotions. “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager” benefits greatly through its pairing of stylistic and narrative elements because they allow the story to develop while creating a deeper meaning. The use of these elements enable the show to contradict the current oppressive view of teenage pregnancy in society.

Old media like broadcasting, print, and film created a consumer culture in the public. Participants would consume the media they could find, and that was the extent of their engagement with a piece of media. But during the digital age, participatory culture has exploded. Participatory culture is a concept coined by Henry Jenkins where consumers take part in both the consumption and the production of media. The advent of computers facilitates a low barrier of entry for creation of digital media and its propagation. With the availability of personal computers and consumer level software to manipulate media as well as the popularity of the internet to spread content, fans have become more engaged with the media they consume. In turn, participants can create forms of that media that comment and expand upon the original content. Participants who used to only consume media now have the avenues to become producers of media. In this essay, I will explore participatory culture through the lense of Lev Manovich’s Five Principles of New Media: Numerical Representation, Modularity, Automation, Variability, and Transcoding.