Media Studies Assignment #2 "liveness"

Liveness, also known as immediacy plays a vital role in today’s television, while being very prominent in pre 1950’s television where it television was mostly broadcast live. The updates in recording devices now means that more and more television shows are being pre-recorded then broadcast using VHS or Dvd. This will discuss the effect of liveness on the chosen clip (ONE News at 6 - January 17, 2011) and the television genre horror and also more generally how genre conventions affect the liveness in television broadcasts.

Liveness, or Immediacy, is defined by Gripsrud as “A key aesthetic value” (90) in television. Television used to be screened live, but from the late 1950’s onwards the advances in recording devices and playback devices have made it easier to pre-record television and broadcast it Via Video or DVD (Gripsrud), however most news broadcasts are screened live and streamed via satellite. For example, the news broadcast show in the clip is highlighting ‘immediacy’ by being recorded live, and which in turn is working on the genre convention that news is deemed more factual when it is directly reported from a reporter who is live from the scene. This is a genre convention of the news, with it being deemed more accurate when the watcher can see the events taking place.

While other Television shows hide the cables and microphones to try to convince the viewer that what they are seeing is happening right there as you watch it, and the actors and actresses very rarely address the audience directly (Also known as the fourth wall). The ‘news anchors’ will always look directly and speak directly at the camera, as if directly speaking to each individual viewer this is also another genre convention of the news.

The main event portrayed in the clip (ONE News at 6 - January 17, 2011) is the reporting of the effect of flooding in Australia, the areas affected are shown to us on a map of Australia. What this helps the viewer do is to locate the effected area’s which may not be so widely known, but also help the viewer determine how far they are from the affected areas. The news is mostly reported by the ‘Australian correspondents’ who are reporting from the scene of the ‘worst floods in decades’. The ‘news’ utilizes having New Zealanders acting as correspondents in several countries who are experts at reporting on that countries news and current affairs. This allows the viewers in New Zealand to get the news from different countries around the world from New Zealanders. Another story only mentioned in the headlines is how these floods may affect your groceries prices which indicates that the ‘news’ is created for the people, and watching it will in turn help them.

What this news broadcast utilizes is the love New Zealander’s have for each other, even though it is a Australian based problem, the New Zealand based news company has found an Australian based New Zealander to interview. This allows viewers in New Zealand to find a way to relate to the problems that Australia is having, by doing this the ‘news’ is showing how this problem, the floods, effects more than just Australians.

The clip displays the effects of liveness from the beginning, the weather reporter using the words ‘It is about to get wild and windy’ what this line of speech indicates to the viewer is that it is happening soon. The same reporter also states that ‘right now, it is 6 o’clock’ by indicating the time to the viewer, the reporter is indicating that the broadcast is live. During announcing of the headline news by the anchors, it is indicated to us that later on in the broadcast they will be ‘reporting live’ from the scene. The reporter also uses a microphone with the one news logo on the side, to indicate that they are watching a reporter who is reporting in the best interests of the viewer.

Genre is defined by “the way texts are put together and read” (Schirato, Buettner and Jutel), as well as a way of categorizing texts (193). A way that helps the viewer to determine what genre they are watching is defined by Chion as “Audio-visual illusion” (Chion). Meaning that certain sounds and images in the text gives away the genre. Horror is also genre of television with separate conventions. It is these conventions that allow the viewers to determine what sort of program they are watching. For example, sounds that give away the genre of ‘horror’ could be; screaming, thuds and shrieks while images that give away the ‘horror’ genre could be; blood streaks on walls, dimly lit rooms. The horror genre also focuses less on the ‘liveness’ aspect of television or film, and more on the shock and awe factor at the extremes, although, horror does want you to feel as though it could be in your position. This is achieved by using story lines that people could easily find themselves in, road trip gone wrong, holiday to Europe turns into a massacre. This plays on the viewer’s belief that they could be in that position not just viewing from “a distance” (Gripsrud) as they actually are.

The clip displays the effects of liveness from the beginning, the weather reporter using the words ‘It is about to get wild and windy’ what this line of speech indicates to the viewer is that it is happening soon. The same reporter also states that ‘right now, it is 6 o’clock’ by indicating the time to the viewer, the reporter is indicating that the broadcast is live. During announcing of the headline news by the anchors, it is indicated to us that later on in the broadcast they will be ‘reporting live’ from the scene.

The news genre in general and especially in this clip uses images and sounds to tell you it’s the news. From the very beginning of the clip the tag “one news” is displayed in the bottom right hand corner. This is followed by a male voice over telling the viewer who the ‘anchors’ are and that they are watching “one news”. The ‘anchors’ then introduce us to the headlines which are each tagged as ‘one news headlines’. During the reporting of the Australian floods, the ‘live’ reporting is denoted by a sign in the bottom left of the screen saying ‘live’ and where it is live from. This is extended further when the news anchor is conversing live with the correspondent, with each location donated by ‘Studio’ or ‘Brisbane’. At the conclusion of the clip, at the conclusion of the broadcast, the news anchors conclude the broadcast with ‘that’s all for Monday’ and departing words of ‘good night’ both of these lines help the viewer conclude that the broadcast of the ‘news’ that they just watched was screened live.

If the ‘news’ strays from these genre conventions for example, reporting from the scene, looking directly at the camera, providing news for the people and remaining ‘live’. It could ruin the viewer’s perception of the news that is being delivered to them. The news is broadcast at the same times every day, 12 noon, 4.30 pm, 6 pm and 10.25 pm with exceptions for breaking news stories, and stories of great importance (TVNZ). Other forms of television do not always have to stick to these conventions to be successful, with most utilizing the advances in recording equipment and being pre-recorded. However, as Grisprud states, failures in this equipment, for instance, technical problems or atmospheric interference have often caused the viewers to question the ‘liveness’ of the pre-recorded broadcast as it disrupts the ‘illusion’.    

While over the years television has evolved with the improvements to recording and broadcasting equipment allowing more and more programs to be pre-recorded. Certain genres, in the case of this clip, the news have tried keep the ‘liveness’ aesthetic. Employing many strategies to come across as live, the news has stuck to these genre conventions to remain ‘factual’ and accurate. While other genres such as horror use ‘liveness’ in other ways to try to put the viewer into the perspective of them being in the place of the protagonist.  

Works Cited

Chion, Micheal. Audio-Vision. New York: Columbia Universtiy Press, 1994.

Gripsrud, Jostein. "Television, Broadcasting, Flow,: Key Metaphors in TV Theory." Geraghty, Christine and David Lusted. The Television Studies Book. London: Arnold, 1998. 17-32.

ONE News at 6 - January 17, 2011. YouTube. Web Video. Jan 19, 2011. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djWZcgKLniE&feature=player_embedded>

Schirato, Tony, et al. Understanding Media Studies. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2010.

TVNZ. One News Coverage Times - Christchurch Earthquake. 22 Febuary 2011. 9 May 2011 <http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1102/S00774/one-news-coverage-times-christchurch-earthquake.htm>.

Word Count -1361

A Dowloaders Tale.

A Downloaders Tale.

As i will explain in an overzelous, highly opinionated, one sided, fan obseesionistic way, there is a good reason for downloading. Well that is the message i hope to portray. There are a few different reasons for downloading, release dates, money issuses and a general disregard for the effort and money that has been put into the creation of the thing downlaoded.

The New Zealand release dates for many of my favorite Television shows is the main reason i download. Take for Example, Chuck, The release date of each new episode, is many months after it has screened in the US. Due to this long wait many resort to downloading or watching it via the internet. A more appropriate example may be the recent series of Doctor Who, due to be screened here on the 7th of may,even though the first episode screened in the England on the 23rd of April. Although this may seem like a relativley short wait when compared to the wait for "Chuck" with the acsess to mass media via the internet, due to things like Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia (hell even having friends overseas) makes avoiding spoilers for the shows very difficult. (Doctor Who was A Twitter Trend in the days leading up to its Airing) While the argument could be that i simply avoid it, that is something much easier said than done.

For Example, My facebook news feed and friends list contains friends from New Zealand and many other countires around the world, with practically all of these screening Doctor Who before New Zealand and due to the nature of the internet these days, many of these people began to post updates giving away the most of the plot details, to be honest I have no idea. What this is similar to is going into an test with the answers given to you. It removes the vital aspect of the show, the enjoyment factor (I am in no way saying tests are enjoyable). Even though I download the episodes, I will still follow up and buy them when they are released on DVD after which i delete the downloaded files from my computer.

Downloading TV shows and movies is quite differnet. While TV shows often are screened on free-tp-air channels (I .e Doctor Who on the BBC in England) you will usually have to pay to see a movie, meaning every time a movie is illegially downloaded, money is being lost (This happens to TV shows when people don't buy the DVD sets upon release). Due to the technological advances it has become far easier to simply go to the movies, record it and then distribute it via the internet. With the most popular generating thousands upon thousands of downloads (Fast Five, Source Code). This way however, is very sloppy, with the quality of these downloads being very low, although this does little to deter people. In countires in America and England, where the montly internet caps are a lot higher then New Zealand (200gb or unlimited plans, oppose to 60gb) internet piracy is a worse problem, I know people who claim to have stacks of hard drives full of movies, music and television shows.

While i admit to downloading movies in the past, In recent times I have taken up paying to go to the movies (Thank you Student ID Card). Not only do I find this far more enjoyable than simply downloading and watching on my TV, it is giving back to the companies that produced them allowing for more movies to be produced, developed and made. However, there still are movies which I do but upon release I will still pay to see (if it's good), for example, I have followed the movie 'Paul' through it's various stages of development.I am unsure of the exact date of release in England, but in the days following, there had been a low quality version posted to one of the most popular torrent website (Not named for my own reasons), i obtained this copy, but only because the release date for New Zealand, had not been confirmed (With some of my favorite movies never getting a release in New Zealand, i felt the need). I watched, and in deed, was suitably impressed by the movie, i like ever aspect of it, casting, production, setting, story line and the way it was written. But what this did not give me was the experiance of going to the movies to watch it. Once the release date for 'Paul' was announced, i made plans to go and watch it. after which i deleted the horrible quality 'Cam version'. I will also follow up this by buying the DVD when it is released.

While i do donwload my favorite TV shows, i will also buy the Box set's upon release and even though I download movies, I will follow it up buy usually going to see them in the movies and eventually buying the DVD. I think downloadig becomes a problem when these things do not take place.




Authors added bit.
I would like to follow thing up by breifly touching on downloading music. I reccomend downloading music, but only if it is mainstream, i reccomened illegially downloading Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, Katy Perry and Kanye West, but only to have the satisfaction of deleteing them.

 Authors Notes,
I got reall bored waiting for a lecture and decided to formulate an opinion on something, i came to the conclusion that Downloading, whcih has features heavily in the news would be a good focus for it. I do't expect many, or any to agree with me, as it may come across as just an Opinion and nothing more. It is not really academic, however it is written in such a way, if i get more time, i may come back and reference it to provide proof for that i mean. Although a lot is factuall as it is, i felt i didnt need a reference because it was from my own personal knowledge.