Case Studies of British TV Series: Projecting the Real Life in "Victoria" and "Black Mirror: Nosedive" (original) (raw)

TV Series: A Form of Adaptation to the Contemporary Media Condition

Rivista di Estetica, 2023

The article connects the forms of contemporary tv series with the narrative and participatory logics of contemporary media. In particular, the author proposes to consider the wide diffusion and popularity of TV series as a form of response and adaptation to the contemporary media condition. The article proposes an analysis of the ways in which the human instinct for storytelling finds form in contemporary participatory media practices. This reflection is situated within the broader debate on post-cinema and the ways in which new technologies have transformed cinema and audiovisual products. This theoretical perspective is related to the well-known twentieth-century philosophical reflection on the status of narration. TV series, therefore, are a response to the "call for concordance" (Ricoeur) that is nowadays more evident than ever. Yet there seems to be a sort of paradox here, that characterizes the tv series aesthetic experience: in the process of accomplishing this concordance, by creating solid and unitary world, TV series adapt that transmedia aesthetic (Jenkins) of fragmentation that is typical of contemporary media logic. At the end the author discusses some examples.

Determinants of the Content and Creation of Modern Television Series. Selected Issues

Creativity. Theories – Research - Applications, 2016

The aim of this article is to present the most important factors affecting the creation and content of two different genres of television series–Polish television sagas and American post-soap operas. The analysis which I have carried out in the field allows the formulation of several conclusions. The creation of the two genres is similar. In both cases the most important people are the producers and scriptwriters and the most important criteria used for the assessment of a production are audience ratings and economic factors. Polish television sagas and American post-soaps are often very different with regard to their content and the ways they present social issues. The reasons for the differences include: genre convention, expectations of viewers, social and cultural context, and the emergence of commercial subscription television in the United States. At the turn of the 21st century HBO, an American pay television provider, followed by other stations began to produce shows which, ...

Practical philosophy and television drama. Ethical and anthropological remarks on some European television series (2015)

Church, Communication and Culture, 2017

When reasoning about the stories and dramas of television series, it is useful to resort to an ethical and anthropological criterion. This approach calls for distinguishing between an anthropological reason applicable to people in the real world and the dramatis personae. There are two coherent anthropological behaviors that may contribute to a viewers' active position. The first one is to consider that Aristotle's Poetics and the contemporary extension of his content can rationally account for those stories and dramas, today precisely qualified as 'tragic'. The second one is to understand the real world and its dramatic representations, in accordance with the Leonardo Polo's transcendental anthropology, the vision which J€ urgen Habermas finds in religions, and Joseph Ratzinger-articulating reason and faith-has summed up as living veluti si Deus daretur.

A Discussion of Cultural Studies and Contemporary Television

In recent years, television has been reconfigured in the face of new consumption practices for television products. Audiences seeking specific content and a chance to build your own schedule. Thus, watching theses contents no longer restricted to a single support, but it is a myriad of media that includes computers, video games, tablets and smartphones. Cultural Studies bring decisive contributions to thinking about how articulations of everyday practices, culture and society are intrinsically related and can be debated with a view to the media - in these case, television. We are interested in discussing, besides technological aspects, a television as instance, which implies symbolic exchanges and diverse forms of reception

Review: Popular television drama: critical perspectives

European Journal of Communication, 2006

What makes eleven essays by eleven different authors cohere in a way that makes sense to present them together as a book? Whatever that is, I do not quite find it in this collection. The editors assert that the various contributions function as an organic whole and indeed they strive arduously to make connections in a general introduction, section introductions and an afterword. Nevertheless, I am left with a sense of irreducible bittiness.

Cultures of TV Drama

2022

This document describes a research project that was funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (grant RG/14351) and ran from September 2002 until June 2005. It combined analytical and archival study of British TV drama programmes with generic, institutional and cultural study of the professional context of British TV drama output. Research addressed the theoretical and methodological questions arising from the study of 'popular' television drama forms and established how distinctions between 'popular' British TV drama and flagship 'serious' drama were dependent on institutional forces and conflicts within and between television institutions, including the regional organisation of TV production, changes in policy and regulation, and the detail of production practices. In the course of this work, the project team analysed how a body of canonical texts and received histories have been established in previous studies of British Television Drama, evaluating this process and questioning its methods, theoretical assumptions, and inclusions and exclusions. Results of the research were disseminated by means of publication for academic audiences in the form of journal articles, book chapters, monographs and an edited collection of essays. In addition, four one-day symposia were held at which members of the project team, academic speakers and television producers and directors presented new academic research and (in the case of TV professionals) reflected on their working practices and experience in the television industry.

DYSTOPIA ON TELEVISION: BLACK MIRROR

The enlightenment philosophy historically appeared in 18th century Europe promises that the universe can be apprehended by rational thinking and so humankind can reach knowledge, happiness, prosperity and freedom. However, irrecoverable destructions and great tragedies around the world caused by weapons of mass destruction that arose due to especially two great World Wars and scientific developments in 20th century brought on questioning rational thinking extolled by the enlightenment philosophy. Knowledge sanctified as power, concreted itself in " technological destruction tools ". Consequently, the idea that on rational basis reason works only for human's prosperity in relation of progress and science lost its plausibility. Therefore, the ideal society utopia promised by rational thinking taking part at the center of scientific developments turns into a nightmare, an anti-­‐‑ utopia and more clearly a dystopia in modern world. Thus utopian thought which began to develop in 18th century has properly given place to dystopic reflections of the fear of disasters. As Fredric Jameson stated,(1990) these dystopic reflections indicating the spirit of age reveal themselves explicitly in visual arts. At this point television series Black Mirror reflects the reality of age by displaying from different perspectives together with technological developments how radical changes on communication instruments affected whole humanity. It reveals how technology that is claimed to make lives of people easier, surrounds them and wrecks their lives. Black Mirror is a dystopic production trying to show how the masses were manipulated by means of mass communication and how they became dependent to dominant powers. Until January 2015, 7 episodes were featured in 3 seasons and the production tries to mirror a different reality of our age by addressing an up-­‐‑ to-­‐‑ date and different issue in each episode. In other words this production tries to picturize social, political, cultural and economic realities that people experienced but did not perceived in our day-­‐‑ id est. in 20th century-­‐‑. This study tries to reveal how mass communication was addressed in Black Mirror television series. It is important with regards to its aim at presenting global-­‐‑ current problems caused by mass communication. Although still Black Mirror is British television series, it is important because it present problems that mass communication caused not only on a local scale but also on a global scale. The starting point of the study is trying to understand under what circumstances utopia turns into dystopia and how it foresees the future. In this context Black Mirror television series will be analyzed with the method of qualitive situational research.

Popular Television Drama: Critical Perspectives

2005

What makes eleven essays by eleven different authors cohere in a way that makes sense to present them together as a book? Whatever that is, I do not quite find it in this collection. The editors assert that the various contributions function as an organic whole and indeed they strive arduously to make connections in a general introduction, section introductions and an afterword. Nevertheless, I am left with a sense of irreducible bittiness. There is a section on situation comedy, which includes Barry Langford on The Office and Robin Nelson on Dad's Army. There are several essays on children's programmes, such as Maire Messenger Davies on The Demon Headmaster and Jonathan Bignell on Doctor Who. Another section deals with programmes considered somehow 'other', for example, Mark Bould on The Prisoner and Peter Billingham on Queer as Folk.

A Psychological and Hermeneutical Method to Analyse TV Fiction

1994

In the process of industrialisation media and communication were subjecled to the same basic structure of transport inherent in the telegraph and the railway. This led to categorisation based on the principle of the division of labour, into the central production, the distribution and the reception of the media. (2) The Combining of Communication with Consumption With the expansion of industrial production, all products are consumed. This means that as many people as possible have products at their disposal, which they acquire both in the same manner and in a highly individualised fashion. With the electronic media, particularly with television, individual consumption of similar offers is regarded as self-evident right from the beginning. The mechanism of the individualisation of media-Inte!faces6 (1994) communication enables the recipient as a personal subject to act meaningfully. (3) The Media are integrated in Everyday Life by the Recipients in a Meaningful ,Way. "Television" as the leading media of current mass communication is integrated inO everyday life. Therefore television is integrated both in the dynamic of industrial production and in the dynamic of human activities. The individualised consumption of prefabricated , standardised images only functions because human beings integrate these images with their meaningful actions and experiences. However this is only possibie because they adapt their actions and experiences to the specific media and their images.

Cultural Indicators: The Social Reality of Television Drama

1973

Abstract: A proposal is presented for the continuation of ongoing research into the relationships between pervasive cultural trends represented by network television drama and popular conceptions of reality in the areas or health, behavior, and policy. The research leading to the development of the Cultural Indicators (of trends in television dramatic content and their effects) began with the analysis of the most pervasive and comprehensive images of everyday culture found in television drama. The symbolic structures and functions of the ...