Fourth Annual
MeCCSA Postgraduate Network Conference 2007

University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol Thursday 12th and Friday 13th July 2007 > Click here to view the detailed programme overview (online) > Click here to download the detailed programme overview (pdf) Conference Programme - Abstracts Panel 3: Television Audiences Chair: Dr Seth Giddings Genre and audiences: the reception of television historical dramas in China George Dawei Guo, University of Westminster history, genre, quality, audiences, Chinese television The Chinese television historical dramas (dianshi lishiju) here refer to a specific type of contemporary historical drama. In the mid-1990s a wave of dramatic serials featuring the legendary figures of China’s bygone dynasty began to dominate dramatic programming in Chinese primetime television. The trend climaxed in the late 1990s and the early 2000s with saturation programming of palace dramas set in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), what Chinese critics termed “Qing Drama”. From the early 2000s till now more dramas like these dealing with historical figures and events of different periods of ancient Chinese history have been produced and aired nationwide in China. This research project critically examines contemporary Chinese audience responses to these television historical dramas by conducting a qualitative audience study of how these dramas are understood and socially and culturally valued in contemporary China, considering personal, social, historical and cultural issues that relate to viewers’ engagement with this television genre. The main methods used in this project are genre analysis, semi-structured focus groups and in-depth interviews. Funny ha-ha, funny peculiar, or just not funny at all? Comedy, reality and television audiences Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore, Cardiff University television studies, comedy, trans-national audiences Very little academic work has so far looked at the audiences of television comedy. The few studies that are available tend to focus on issues of representation, while showing little interest in exploring the role of humour. My paper will argue for the need to expand this focus, and I will discuss the ways in which my own research aims to highlight a wider range of issues involved in television comedy viewing. I will focus particularly on my analysis of audience talk about two programmes, The Office (UK) and Nissene På Låven (Norway). Drawing on focus group data, this cross-cultural case study examines the ways in which viewers construct the relationship between TV comedy and the “real”, as well as how they construct its effect on their own engagement with the programmes. The discussion will also consider the role of viewer expectations, comedy metatext, and discourses of nationality and gender. The end of imagination: audience defined in Indian news channels Somnath Batabyal, SOAS, University of London audience ratings, imaginings, viewer preferences This paper draws from a year of ethnographic research in Indian newsrooms in 2006, specifically Star News, a twenty four-hour national news channel. It will focus on the journalists’ understanding of the audience and claim that the era of imagining the audience is over. News producers in India claim to have defined and captured their audience. The paper will discuss the pseudo-sociological and pseudo-scientific way this has been done and its possible consequences. a) Pseudo - Sociological:  Who is the audience? In over 80 interviews conducted, the answers never varied. “I am the audience, my family and close friends are the audience. What I like to see is news?” Journalists come from middle or upper middle class families and thus what they want to see and therefore produce results in a homogenous content across over 40 national news channels. b) Pseudo scientific: There are 4500 electronic monitoring boxes fixed to TV sets to create an index of popularity (TRP ratings). India has a population of sixty nine million households with cable connections. The number of boxes is heavily loaded towards the big cities and the upper middle classes with spending power. No boxes are found in rural or semi-rural areas. Advertisers and TV marketing bosses are guided by these ratings, which in return prompt editorial bosses about viewers’ preferences. As the concern is with advertising revenue, the audience profile of India is massively skewed. In other words the idea of audience cannot be separated from the interests of the inquirer. So much media studies starts off at the wrong angle, because they take the audience to be a naturalized entity. With journalists and their audience coming from the same socio-economic class, the news content produced is a skewed and distorted image of a happy, middle class India, unmindful of and wishing away the 400 million living below the poverty line. Panel 1: Imperialism and Globalisation Panel 2: Online Citizens and Democracy Panel 3: Television Audiences Panel 4: Mediating Identity 1 Panel 5: Reporting the Conflict Panel 6: Journalism and Social Responsibility Panel 7: Sexual Representations in Cinema Panel 8: Popular Culture Panel 9: Still Image Panel 10: Branding, Advertising and Corporate Cultures Panel 11: Film and Theatre Panel 12: Alternative Film Panel 13: Feminism, Gender and Identity Panel 14: Fan Culture and Online Audiences Panel 15: Public Service Broadcasting and Radio Panel 16: Design for Screen Panel 17: Uses of Music and Sound in Film Panel 18: Mediating Identity 2 Panel 19: Citizens, Interaction and the Public Interest Note: Please be aware that the programme might be subject to changes. Please refer back to this page for a final programme overview nearer the conference. The final programme will also be communicated to delegates via email. Back to Home Page