Final Exam- Lecture + Discussion Notes

State Television is NOT the same as Public Television

- Directly controlled by the ruling party of the government, whoever is in charge; they can say, "I will appoint this people to be in charge of this television station" - Ruling regime - a state controlling a television system - Existence of public televisions is guaranteed by the state but NOT directly managed by the state - Usually an independent trust or independent institution set up and powered by the government independently managing television

UK Public Television System - License- Fee Model

- Public television funded by a license- fee - When you buy a television set, you pay this annual fee to use that television set like a driver's license - License goes into funding the public television's system - BBC- British Broadcasting Corporation - License Fee in British context, in the 1990s, each household was charged 147 pounds (remains constant); now, it is a tiny bit cheaper - Look at everything we are providing to the British residents - all tv stations and radio services ('doing a lot with a little')

Trump Watches up to Eight hours of TV Per Day: Report

-- Assumption that television is a bad object -- Anyone who watches television is "not as smart as someone that reads" -- Built - in this basic critique of one political figure, is this notion that television is less legitimate than other forms of communication

Fleabag -- Breaking the "fourth- wall"

-- Experimental -- Never happens in dramas -- Breaks the audience's expectations, which also adds to comedy

What limitations of commercial television might be a reason to consider alternatives? How else can we organize television, broadly speaking?

1) Relying on advertisement revenues 2) Barriers to access * Not settling for what we have when there may be other ways of doing televisions more worthy of exploration than the current system...

Why do we need a television system funded not by advertising, not by consumer subscriptions, but funded in a public way and meant to stand outside the profit world of commercial televise to serve the public?

1) TV for the people and by the people 2) Allows everyone to access it since it is free

When was Rating Systems established?

1990s

What kind of TV system is best going to serve the public?

Answer varies

Public Broadcasting- Production and Distribution Equivalence

Centralized Network- NBC headquarters making all of the decisions Distrusted Network- an exchange, independent producers throughout the globe make programs and those go into a pot that then individual stations can choose to draw from

Previously on 351...

FCC determines whether broadcast content violates the public interest -- FCC as a government regulatory body -- Regulations prohibit obscenity and limit indecency -- Regulations measure against "contemporary community standards" -- FCC is not super active, but they listen to the public for complaints

TV System - For the People

Governments getting together to create public television's system content to serve the people

Insulated Funding

Guaranteed set amount of national budget set aside exclusively for tv. Promoted by Carnegie Commission, but never actually happened.

Knowledge and power have a ____________ relationship.

close

Season 4- Case Studies in Industry change

How are televisions reconfigured by new digital technologies? - New technologies change what televisions is, something that recontinues television as a medium

Season 4- Case Studies in Industry change

How can we make sense of change in the television industries? - Working on a case-study model, organized around how can we make sense of change How has our sense of TV's value changed through discourses of quality? How does public TV seek to reorient the medium to new goals?

Film of Breaking Bad

How do we know now this is not "quality" television anymore? -- Sound effects did not blend in well --> contrived, not something high quality or real -- Makes the female character look stupid - theme of the "nagging wife" or "silly wife" - such a common convention -- If it is not abiding satyr, having deep social commentary, comedy within the tv industry has historically been a denigrated form of television; whereas, drama is automatically considered of higher quality -- Notion of humor - not taking the subject matter seriously

THEN: Interrogating "quality" as a way of valuing TV content + audiences

How does change unfold and/or operate in this contemporary moment across all of these industrial dimensions? Broadly speaking- power and politics in these industries (put on critical hats)... -- How does power operate in these industries and create hierarchies, which give more power to some audiences and less power to others?

Is Quality a static category?

No, it is constantly changing.

Who wrote Fleabag?

Phoebe Waller- Bridge -- What does that do when you have this person, we can identify that did it all? Directed/ created it/star/producer -- Autor image- she is the one behind this singular vision; she is the genius that designed it all ---- Raises this level of quality within the show -- More like a theatre piece

Quality TV in the 1950s

Quality in terms of reference to the theatric (not episodic, but a different show every week with different scenarios, characters, plots, etc.) - Attempt for television to be seen as "theatricality" (quality is theatre) - Hierarchies of arts- television at the bottom

What's the difference between these shows?

Reality TV versus Game of Thrones or Handmaid's Tale- budget plays a key role here

Discourses are all about ___________________; the ability to create a system of thought that organizes the way we do things and think about things, which is a very powerful ability.

power

Rating Systems - 1990s -- They are going after a ___________ __________ of the audience.

specific fragment

Quality is in relation to what 3 things?

text, industry, & audiences. Remember- the idea of quality is not just a textual question!

LAST THOUGHTS: How do cable and streaming self- regulate too?

There are NO FCC regulations, but still self- regulations, at the corporate level

HBO Branding Campaign (15 yrs. ago) - Abiding by today's standards of Quality TV

"IT'S NOT TV. IT'S HBO." - Trying to be seen as a place in television where you can find quality - HBO programming being legitimated but the rest of tv is seen as "trashy" - As a branding campaign, we see how quality is being produced through the claims a channel might make for itself - Here we see HBO sits at the top of the hierarchy of TV channels

Public TV- 1950s

- At a national level, stations started to cooperate to produce and admixture television on educational tv on a national scale - Fred Rodgers invested in using TV as an educational tool - Corporate partnership between independent local companies - More official basis, nationally public funded inspiration

Cultural Capital

- Capital in an economic sense - Who has economic capital and who has cultural capital? - Who has access to taste and products? - Branding campaigns, identifications, specific audiences having or lacking this or that - This links up taste and economic status - Greater cultural status and positions in these cultural hierarchies associated to those who are most valuable in a market sense

Public TV- 1967

- Carnegie commission- What should the TV system look like? - Sent study to Congress that the U.S. should create a set of broadcast institutions - Recommended we need to have a public television's system that has insulated funding - the funding is going to be insulated, protected from the whims of lawmakers, thus perpetuating the potential for political pressure - We need to fund it on a long-term process - We need public television to have insulated funds - Carnegie commission got one of its wishes granted

Co-productions Method

- Downton Abbey airs on PBS in the US, but there is a show produced in partnership with it: independent television- commercial service in the UK - ITV and public service PBS- got together, asked themselves, how can we make a program serving both our interests and then share costs? -- Finding a way to make a show valuable in both proforma stub only have to pay half the price for making the show - PBS is part of a television system where programs are being designed to travel locally - Circulation throughout the globe is being imagined in this global way; the show is envisioned as something that will move throughout the globe and serve these different markets throughout the globe, maybe in different ways - Not designed to just be British or American, but global - Co-produced out of these global industry relationships

PBS: "Enhanced underwriting" practices

- Ex: a voice talking at the beginning, "Sesame Street made possible with corporate downers like ..." - Gone beyond voice over to something that looks like a traditional advertisement - Main Example: Viking river cruises receiving a commercial advertisement - PBS trying to make this opportunity available to sponsors, cannot depend on the government for all the funding -- Looks super attractive -- Trying to be more commercial to sustain its place in the tv system

TV System - By the People

- Institutions making programs on behalf of the public, but the public isn't participating - It is still the experts who work at PBS/professionals who make televisions on our behalf

PBS - Part Two

- It was much easier when PBS was poised as the one alternative to the three broadcast networks/ the one place where you can find art, nature, documentary, etc.; but, in a fragmented environment, with all of these channels on cable and online, it is harder for PBS to convince lawmakers they are doing something unique and it can only happen with public funding - Nickelodeon, Discovery Channel, BBC America, & HBO: all paid services that consumers can access with the means to pay for them; but, PBS is free and imports programming from other television systems -- Level of access is different - Given this questioning of the PBS mission, we have seen in the past several decades a continued attempt, at a legislative level, the question of how much America really needs PBS -- Romney suggested the high cut off of funding to Sesame Street and it is reported that the Trump budget may slash PBS funding; there is always fear of no funding - It is said that taxpayers are quite happy with PBS- 72% of voters like it

Previously on 351... - Public service TV aims to do what commercial TV cannot; the limitations of commercial televisions and public televisions can fill some of those unmet needs

- National policies can support education, information, "uplift" - Public funding can relieve pressures of market, corporate profits -- Marker of defining what public television is -- Funding from the public provides funding for institutions and is not dependent on what is profitable and making corporations happy - Funds can come from licensee fees, legislation, donations

Unpopular Opinion Alert

- Opinions that are not profitable in the marketplace - If we have funding secured from other kinds of services, we do not have to worry about saying things that are popular - Public television makes space for the non-popular

Creation of publicly- funded system of televisions- production, distribution, and delivery - supporting the television medium

- Public TV- product of National Cultural Policy- concerned with culture, communication, the ability of the medium to disseminate information, inform, educate, and entertain -- Cultural policy, whether locally or at the level of the nation, is concerned with shaping culture to inform, educate, and entertain to hopefully serve the public interest -- Usually happens at a national level (ex: FCC) - TV - a site of cultural policy

Quality Creates Distinctions Through Different TV Channels and Bodies

- Quality TV, Quality Channels, and Quality Audiences -- "This is a quality audience; this is NOT a quality audience" - The things marketers may say ban out different audience segments - Not uncommon for marketers to talk about quality as something that can be measured in terms of the audience - The audience can sit in hierarchies with one another - From a marketing POV, quality audiences are ones with money, ones that can spend things on the things they want to sell (ex- ad products, subscription packages, etc.) - Economically valuable = Quality Audience - Who recognizes good programming?

Citizen Muscle Image

- Reorient our understanding of the audience - Who has gatekeeping power? Who has the power to say no to things? - Commercial tv thinks about viewers as consumers- that is what it needs to do to sell products - Public TV -- Doesn't need to sell things and can think about their viewers as citizens, thus serving those viewers in different ways -- Chance of paternalistic imposition of what a citizen NEEDS to know versus what a citizen might want to know -- In terms of entertaining and educating citizens, this might be a new priority which isn't a priority now - Commercial system is thinking about the viewer as a consumer first and foremost

Merchandise Strategy for PBS

- Selling products - Selling t- shirts, DVDs, Blue ray- bringing in money after the fact if we are not covering our production costs upfront - Extra money --> funding for next show - Economy of reputation important for PBS

Political Pressure- Straight Ahead

- Subject to political pressure - If you are reliant on the Federal or State Government to appropriate money for you, you as someone in charge of managing the money, might be nervous about what you're saying about the government - Cannot critique the government if you rely on them for money - Replacing the commercial pressure, but we need to think about the political pressure that might come down in the television system and might shape their decision making as they are trying to rely on funds from various sources - Reliant on corporate donations - Do we want to be critical of Ford if next month we are looking at the Ford Donation to fund us? - You might start thinking about that kind of pressure in the television industry...

Funding Mechanisms

- The key distinction between private corporate systems and public television's system - Public system is television funded by the people: non-profit, not designed to make money for shareholders of corporation, self- sustainable, not trying to generate a profit, using public money to therefore, serve the public

Uplift

- To help share what might be best about any particular community- with everyone who is a member of that community- and make the best art - With this focus on uplift, comes a certain patriarchal aspect (cultural policy makers may think they know what is best for the public) -- Power in questions of policy, to define what is valuable and uplifting - Idea of uplift; we can work to construct a shared culture and bring it to everyone that uses the televisions system - Public TV can produce content that is outside corporate control - Power of corporations, who may be funding commercial tv systems, we already come to understand; they have a lot of power to shape what can and cannot be said

PBS - Part One

- Trying to sustain this network, so we have this infrastructure that all of these stations can draw from - Their mission is to offer programming that exposes America to the world of music, theater, dance, and art - It is a multi-platform media organization that serves Americans through television, mobile devices, the web, in the classroom, and more - Empowers individuals to achieve their potential and strengths

The Good Place Episode

-- About the afterlife -- BUT the lightest tv show ever- pretty and colorful

Fleabag -- National Identity- British

-- British television is considered more sophisticated/ relies on self- deprivation -- Pushing boundaries- not trying to appeal to everyone -- Challenging the viewers + trying to make them feel uncomfortable -- A lot of classic sitcoms with the laugh track while some are known as so exclusive (only 6 episodes, don't want to compromise their quality or replicate themselves); but, you do have sitcoms the have lasted for more than 10 seasons What gets picked up by American television from the British? ---- Maintaining that discourse that British has quality TV

Why do we make these distinctions?

-- In our human nature to make hierarchies -- Think about what kind of impression you want people to have about you and what kinds of impressions do you want it to have about yourself -- Saying you are a fan of Game of Thrones versus Real Housewives; people judge those who watch reality tv, because reality TV makes them seem less smart, but Game of Thrones reputation is that the audience is smart and of higher status

Why would they want to be proactive and create this system rather than waiting for the FCC to say, "we have a problem here, and you should create a ratings system?"

-- Industries are now able to say to audiences, "you've been warned, this is on you, and it is not our fault you are offended by the content" -- Putting the responsibility on the parent - not that we are a bad network, but that you're a bad parent (shifting of responsibility here*)

Members of TV academy voting on what's the best -- How is quality shaped by the tastes of one audience? (Ex - Emmy Awards)

-- It is just industry professionals making these decisions -- We are selecting from a sample of people (some editors, some musicians, and some writers)- not every television professional is a member of the academy, because you need to meet certain requirements -- Does not reflect the public, at large -- The academy is reproducing the tastes of some groups and their claims about quality and not allowing for other tastes to come to surface from these other audiences

Do we see ourselves as artistic, intellectual people, or passive viewers that need to be told how to react to things?

-- Own self-worth is invested into these categories of quality -- Using this marker of quality in conversations with people to impress them -- We are so not complicating how people really consume television; obviously, people can watch a show like Breaking Bad and not be paying attention and watch the Bachelor and really get the themes of gender, sexuality, and romance -- There's an assumption of "we are what we watch" (not realistic though)

Legitimation <-- --> delegitimating

-- Particular television channels being legitimated as quality, as the face of this Golden Age of television, but they try to identify how lighting up some television is depending on the persistent delegitimating of other television channels and tastes at the same time -- As much as there is a shift here, some are still being bordered off from the category of people who can identify quality -- In terms of recognizing the value of television, they think it's good there is a greater critical discourse of tv - we have discussions of television quality and television as being art instead of trash ("trash for the masses")- there is progress in that -- BUT focus on continuity too- television is referred to as the "idiot box"

Quality relates to class, gender, and race

-- Redeeming qualities to make something that does have a woman in the lead to become quality -- Race is a huge factor in what is considered segregated versus high quality: what does it take for something like "The Wire" for people at the center to become high quality? -- The academies- who gets to decide what is considered high quality? -- Who is behind it that gets to shape that discourse; meaning, what is their identity and where do their interests lie?

What TV shows, by contrast, are "guilty pleasures"?

-- Shows like reality television -- HBO- adult content, explicitly sexual scenes, catered towards an adult audience -- Plotlines less complex -- Laugh track shows- of less quality, tells the audience how to react, thus requiring less from the audience -- Shows you can be a passive audience for

Netflix, 'House of Cards,' and the Golden Age of Television

-- TV is replacing movies as elite entertainment, because players like Netflix, HBO, and AMC are in an arms race for lush, high-quality shows -- There has been a shift in television (something has changed) - claim being made about quality

7 TV Shows We're Embarrassed to Admit We Watch (Trash TV / Guilty Pleasures)

-- Television is often devalued as a medium -- Shift in discussions around television to not just talk about television as trash, but also a discourse of the 'Golden Age' -- How do we value the audiences and the taste of viewers? This headline suggests obviously all these shows suck, but maybe they do not (these audiences may lack the power to shape quality)

Awards for Television Excellence- The Emmy Awards

-- Tells us each year what the most outstanding shows were -- Votes from peers decide what, as an industry, is the best How can we talk about power + lack of access to power, when we talk about peer- groups voting on what was the best acted show, best music show, best edited show, and more?

Conan Meets His Censor Film

-- The government regulations surrounding cable content is different -- Late night television transitioned and is now cable late night tv ---- One regulatory context to another -- FCC regulations that applied to the old show didn't apply to the new show BUT self- regulations are still in place -- How does this process of self- regulation unfold? Self- regulation still operates behind the scenes! ---- There are still corporate rules (binder of rules) needed to enforce for series made in their channel -- The clip is embracing what Conan can get away with on cable (ex- buttless pants on tv); it is calling attention to the freedoms that come with cable and more edgy appeals the channel is invested in, YET there are still corporate limits to how far they can go

What TV shows do you think of when we say "quality" TV?

-- This notion that you invest a lot of money in it- role of class -- Expensive show- where does it go? ---- Streaming services & premium cable- portals that require viewers to pay money for it, not something that relies on advertisers or the masses

Rating Systems - 1990s

-- To regulate themselves, the networks and cable channels banded together and volunteered to create this rating system; the FCC did not tell them to do this (keep in mind) ---- Communicating to viewers here's what you will see, and whether or not this is something targeted for youth or a mature audience" ---- Channels opted in to communicate to viewers what is going on

Netflix- First Look: Just for Kids on iPad

-- We see self- regulation in spaces of digital distribution (menus + complex interfaces) ---- Self- regulation can take on a different shape in this environment though -- Designed for children, 12 and under -- Can watch favorite shows anytime and everywhere -- Can find their favorite characters -- Themes -- They will only see age- appropriate titles for kids -- Self- regulation operating at the interface (interface new frontier for regulation) -- Interface becomes a place where television services work to regulate themselves and viewership to allow parents to create kid- centric accounts to stop particular viewers from viewing particular programs

Process of Public Funding

1. US Congress: might have funds they can appropriate to public television and then they can then give those funds to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, who provides funds to local program producers 2. Local stations throughout the country (ex: Wisconsin Public Television or WGBH Boston) make programs - They get funds from state donors, corporate donors, viewers like us, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- Ex: WGBH Boston might make a show and then feed that show into the PBS network; they can air it locally and give program to PBS - Wisconsin's Public Television can pay a fund to help sustain this PBS system and in change they get programming they can draw from or they can make their own programming too -- Then... some money gets back to WGBH Boston - We see these fees and programming crossing both ways: no centralized PBS making all of the decisions -- We have all of these stations making programming who can but do not have to make the programming as part of their system

Factors of "High Quality" TV

1. When a series is based on a historical event, this gives it a lot of credibility and status; for example, Handmaid's Tale- offering social commentary, pointing to imperial structures within society, oppression of women, etc but we do not see that in the Breaking Bad Episode 2. Breaks the mold 3. Satirical comedy- higher level

Discourse

A system of thought that is working to organize or regulate something (whether those are bodies, things, genre as a system of thought, etc.) -- Process by which knowledge and claims to knowledge are constructed

PBS Biggest Hit: Downtown Abbey

• Drew in a large viewership • There is a spin- off field this year • Intellectual property, brand, and franchise • Viewers want to follow it and be loyal to it • Several strategies PBS is using to negotiate this context in which funding is always contingent and it is not always sure how it will make this case for continue defunding to corporate downers, the government, or viewers like us o They constantly have to prove value, in that attempt to prove value, Downtown Abbey can look similar to commercial televisions: trying to demonstrate its value compared to other television channels • Ratings DO matter- but it realistically shouldn't matter for PBS o PBS is not selling advertisements, but it is good for PBS to get good viewing numbers as it demonstrates popular demand o Pointing to ratings can make a case for them that they have a viewership • If they are not advertising on programs like Downtown Abbey, we can think about ways that close relationships with corporate donors are encouraged

Previously on 351...

Broadcast, cable, and streaming content face different regulatory logics -- Over- the- air signals are intrusive (public airways), subscriptions are invited in (using private infrastructure) ---- Broadcast - serves public interest

Previously on 351...

Broadcasters self- regulate to avoid unwanted controversy -- Networks employ "standards and practices" departments ---- Work to review scripts & oversee production under the umbrella of the distributor ---- Self- regulation happens everyday ---- Keeping producers from crossing the lines ---- The FCC steps in on occasions, if there is upset about something -- The broadcast networks don't want to create major problems for advertisers or someone else in which their business depends on making them happy

WRAPPING UP: How does public TV negotiate funding contingency?

By forming global partnerships that might help them to make programming more affinely, make more on a cheaper budget by cooling funds

Previously on 351... - Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 establishes US system

Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds local production - In charge of managing funds given by the government and then deciding who to give those funds to in order to make public television programs - Assign to people who might make programming - Producers operating on a local community: relationship to local televisions station

Designing Global Television

Different national television industries are inter-operating with one another and being influenced by one another as part of the global television system

Season 3 Wrap-up

Episodic and serial narratives support different repetition economics - Working to differentiate different kinds of audiences to communicate within this fragmented audience market -- How do we define them by their differences and correlate programs with different kinds of audiences?

Cons of Public Television Funding

Ex: The federal government threatening to take away funding, which can cause the system to be unsustainable

What makes Fleabag "quality"?

Females are usually denigrated... -- BUT people like blunt females -- She is acting in a blunt way -- It is not a romantic comedy -- First Scene --> One- night stand; she is talking to the audience saying, "and then he leaves" and then she says, "do I have a massive a-hole?" whole revamping- acting like a dude, not sensitive -- Higher quality- women act like men ---- She is having casual s**, being non-sentimental, and blunt

Season 3 Wrap-up

Financing risk is managed through the repetition of genre - Genres are a tool of repetition that works to manage all the risks of production, ensuring what we make is recognizable and built on the successes of the past

Season 4- Case Studies in Industry change

How do those technologies change our imagined engagement with TV? - New technologies --> New ways of engaging

Previously on 351... - But lack of insulated funding subjects' system to political pressure

If lawmakers do not like what PBS is doing, they might not fund them anymore

Public Service Broadcasting

Initial regulatory setup- no form of television that is natural or inevitable; we decide how to organize the televisions institutions - TV is a technology but we decided the rules, how it will be supported, how to use it, etc.

What is the purpose of television?

Is it opium for the masses? Something to entertain? Does it try to create something artistic and innovative?

Quality TV in Today's Society

Needs to aspire to another medium ("cinematic television") - Discourses work the same way - Reference point by which television becomes good is often times cinematic television (a knowable category) - Need to be like the movies to be of high quality - Wikipedia is saying this is a thing we can know about (referencing cinematic television) and this is what it is defined as - New reference point but television still positioned as this lower object

PBS - Part Three

One response from PBS (aka the people operating in the PBS system) is to abandon it -- Ex: Sesame Street 2015 was not getting enough funding to operate this franchise operation; they were making all of this programming, invested in all these fees, but ultimately felt they cannot produce the show at the level they wanted to; the prospects would look better for them in commercial televisions, possibly -- First-run sesame street will be exclusive to HBO -- HBO- new home for Sesame Street when the Sesame workshop said the funding prospects are too dire and we are better off exploring options in the commercial television -- This is all due to the fact that the public system is consistently starved of funds

Funding for Public Televisions in the United States

PBS Donation Telephones- they emphasize that this show is made possible by donations from "viewers like you" - Publicly funded by volunteered donations from the public, if they want to support the system - Some contingency there: how many viewers this year can we get to send in donations? - Public - Funding Model- early model for crowd sources (going directly to the viewer) -- If you like the idea of Masterpiece or Sesame Street, we need you to donate -- Precursor to funding models we now see in the digital market - crowd sourcing the potential viewership themselves to get them to fund public televisions

Sanctioned knowers

People with the power to create these systems of organization that govern how we think

Previously on 351... - Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 establishes US system

Public Broadcasting System distributes content to member stations - Acts as distribution -- Distributing content to different member stations - Programming exchange: the programs that get made at a local level go into the PBS station - Corporations are paying in money to help fund the PBS network and offer consideration to help sustain the production of that programming -- Ability to draw from the PBS network and diverse programs

Quality TV

Quality as a function of television text; quality is a characteristic of program -- "This show is a good show, that show is a bad show" -- Textual elements of programming are what we base our claims to quality

Previously on 351...

Quality is a discourse: a system of thought that regulates things and practices - Constructed by sanctioned "knowers" (critics, professionals, etc.) - Quality is not textually self-evident, but socially/industrially produced

Previously on 351...

Quality is about power - Legitimation depends on distinctions, hierarchies of value - The power to define value is not equally shared - In past lectures, value was defined by what can make companies money -- Now, we look at value in different ways

Transforming Discourses of Quality...

Reference points and hierarchies that are constructed to communicate quality have changed overtime

"Elite entertainment"

Sense of elite suggests we have social hierarchies here and that some people have taste, knowledge about who has value, and that there are others who lack that elite sensibility -- In the golden age of television discourse, we replace the idea that television as a whole lacks value with this hierarchical system (ex- these viewers are quality, and these other viewers are not quality)

Fleabag -- Elements of formal analysis

Sets + lighting- contributing to a darker atmosphere

Season 3 Wrap-up

TV production balances difference and repetition - Trying to make television series that can sustain in this economy of repetition -- Need to balance difference and repetition (find ways to do these minor variations to allow repetition to come with a little bit of newness) ---- Familiar + pleasurable, NOT repetitive + boring

Who are our sanctioned knowers? Who knows what quality is and constructs the discourse?

Television critics (ex: NYT) - power to construct claims of quality -- Need a platform to make authorized statements -- Some have more power to shape the discourse on quality -- They tell us what is good and what is not good on television

Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

Two public broadcast institutions: 1) Corporation for public broadcasting- The Production Funding Art - An independent company whose role was to manage and distribute public funds available - Production role - has a pot of money and can make programming to serve the public - The production funding 2) PBS- Public Broadcasting System- The Distribution Art - System of shared distribution - We have these programs; now, the challenge is creating a way for programs to be shared for all of our local broadcasting stations throughout the country - It serves as the Middle- Man - Delivering to broadcasting stations - The Carnegie station said no way, we are not promising insulated funding; they want to step in if we feel as lawmakers PBS has gone off the rails - Receiving money from the federal government - Lawmakers want to see what PBS has done for them. Is this a good use of public funds? Might have to do with what PBS says about their policies -- Threatened by many administrations to have funding cut off in case the argument is, "they are not serving the public interest"

Fleabag -- Filmed in same style as drama

Using drama as its baseline for its tone, and then it subverts that expectation by breaking the fourth wall and being very crude (pushing the boundaries whether it is explicit sex, foul language, breaking social taboos, or being very daring -- Edge connected to quality

What system of television does the US use?

We decided in terms of the regulatory system to push a private commercially-based television model (1930s, 40s, 50s), but most set up public institutions where the airways are managed in behalf of the public in a non-profit way - Both pursuing public service, but here we have the public service served by commercial televisions

How do we get funds to sustain a public television's system?

We have to raise public money which raises a debate about who much to raise

Underwriting

When a company pays to sponsor a program on a noncommercial station

Season 4- Case Studies in Industry change

Who do televisions industries adapt program format for a global marketplace? - Starting to move out of just this US centric network - They are introduced with industries throughout the globe, bringing in new forms of change + adaptation as television industries interest

Season 4- Case Studies in Industry change

Why does the national network persist even as TV industries globalize? - Global Television: TV industries changing on a global level - Sense of continuity- persist national network even in a world where we have to think about the global scope of television industries

Season 4- Case Studies in Industry change

Why is TV programming integral to emerging transmedia narratives? - Horizontal integration: television changing alongside other television industries and sometime storytelling practices start to blend with each other ("transmedia")

Funding for Public Televisions in the United States

Works to create a pool of money, for which the institutions of production, distribution, and delivery can function - Fund through a variety: -- Individuals, Business, Federal Government, Colleges and universities, foundations, State and Local Governments, other

Does high quality television exert authenticity and realism?

Yes!

Season 3 Wrap-up

Yet, content that pushes different boundaries of taste must be regulated