Institution and Regulation

What is the difference between:

• transgressive
• obscene

Why do regulators consider some material is unsuitable for broadcast on television?

Use information from the Ofcom website to find out some of the programme content that is regulated and for what reason.

Task: Write a short blog outlining some of your research findings.

Compare two different genres of Comedy TV

Use two different examples of comedy television programmes to explain the differences and similarities of genre. Refer closely to examples from your research.

Use the information on your blog to help you talk about two different genres of comedy television. To plan your answer create a table to list the similarities and differences between your choice of shows before you write anything.

• Remember to explain the codes and conventions. What makes a Sketch Show and a Situation Comedy show different? How are they similar in terms of length of episode or audience pleasures?
• Comment on the Institution. Who broadcasts the programme? Explore the commercial pressures of scheduling TV Comedy to mainstream audiences. Do Public Service Broadcasters have more freedom to explore new comedy ideas? Remember how reliant companies are on income from advertising.

TV Comedy Exam Questions

Answer both the questions below. You have the whole lesson.

4. (a) Compare how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels.

State the day, time and channel of each programme.
Who commissioned the programmes?
Who produced them?
What audience are they aimed at? Why?
Why are they on at that time and on that channel? Link to 'type' of comedy and target audience.
Are they on after the watershed? Why?
Know the audience demographic
You must know:
day
time
channel
for both programmes (Friday Night Dinner and Bad Education).

4. (b) Discuss in detail how one programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. [15 marks]

The pleasures are:
narrative pleasures such as those of narrative resolution,
character identification, snowballing narrative, suspense, comedy, and so on
pleasures of recognition, familiarity and anticipation
pleasures of difference-within-repetition
performance unpredictability and spontaneity
transgressive pleasures
specific pleasures associated with performers or personalities.
Remember to include clear examples from the TV comedy you decide to write about.

Audience Demographic Categories

Institution: Television Broadcasters

Key terms to support your answer to the 4a scheduling question.

Watershed 9pm is the normal watershed time when television content is not suitable for younger viewers. Programmes shown post watershed may contain inappropriate language or sexual references.

Public Service Broadcasting

Audience Pleasures

Watch the episode and then do the following:

• Make brief notes on all the audience pleasures.
• Answer the question.

Swap with a partner and peer mark. have you included 3 points? have you included 3 examples from the episode? Have you explained how the audience derive pleasure (have you linked the two earlier points?)

4. (b) Discuss in detail how one programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. [15 marks]

The pleasures are:

• narrative pleasures such as those of narrative resolution, 
• character identification, snowballing narrative, suspense, comedy, and so on
• pleasures of recognition, familiarity and anticipation
• pleasures of difference-within-repetition
• performance unpredictability and spontaneity
• transgressive pleasures
• specific pleasures associated with performers or personalities.

TV Comedy Introduction: Institution Research

1. List all the BBC channels.
2. What is the target audience for each channel?
3. How do they all differ?
4. What type of programmes do they tend to show? List five of the most popular for each channel. Classify the programmes by genre.
5. List all the ITV channels.
6. What is the target audience for each channel?
7. How do they all differ?
8. What type of programmes do they tend to show? List five of the most popular for each channel. Classify the programmes by genre.
9. List all the Channel 4 channels.
10. What is the target audience for each channel?
11. How do they all differ?
12. What type of programmes do they tend to show? List five of the most popular for each channel. Classify the programmes by genre.

GCSE MEDIA: TV Comedy: Introduction

1. What is the BBC?
2. Name as many BBC programmes as possible.
3. Which ones do you watch?
4. What times are they shown on TV?
5. What is the Licence fee?
6. How much does it cost?
7. What is ITV?
8. Name as many ITV programmes as possible.
9. Which ones do you watch?
10. What times are they shown on TV?
11. What is the 'Watershed'?

Your Reader Likes....

Media Institutions use Market Research to guide them to make their magazine appeal to their Target Audience. Knowing what your readers like is key to being able to design a product that will attract customers and in turn generate profit.

Market Research Task

Who is your typical reader? Create a target audience profile page looking at all the demographics of a typical reader.

Use Survey Monkey to help you construct a questionnaire. Invite people to answer your questionnaire and then analyse the data. Present your findings with a commentary showing what you have learnt about your target audience. Explain how this will impact on your planning decisions for your magazine project.

Cross Platform Marketing Campaign

Advertising Everywhere

Institutions work hard to promote their products across lots of different media platforms. An artist has a new track out and you begin to hear an artist's work being played on the radio, they are interviewed on a chat show, they are on the cover of a magazine, they appear on X-Factor and start Tweeting too much. This is NOT an accident. This is part of a marketing campaign.
Check out this Publishing Marketing Campaign for a book. How many different media products do you see?

Little Mix Album Promotion

New Album artwork will appear across the campaign

Little Mix were being interviewed on BBC Radio One's Breakfast Show to promote their new album Move which is out on November 3rd

Watch out over the next two months. Little Mix will be everywhere. There are already articles online Digital Spy and no doubt they will appear on X-Factor in the run up to Christmas.

Can you find a marketing campaign that has worked to promote another band or artist? Find as many media products as you can advertising the album and create a case study of that campaign. Think about the list below to help you.

1. CD Cover
2. Website
3. Interviews
4. Radio appearances
5. TV performances
6. Billboard posters
7. Social Network