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Over the course of Television, we have suggested a variety of techniques for looking at television critically. In so doing, we have drawn examples from assorted television programs to illustrate analytical theories that remain rather abstract. The best way to make these theories concrete is to apply them to individual television programs. The acid test of any TV-analytical method is whether or not it helps you understand television. This appendix presents the outlines of two assignments in TV criticism- one for narrative and the other for non-narrative programs. We encourage you to apply the questions here to a program of your own choice and see what results your analysis yields. These analytical questions can also help guide in-class discussions-providing a structure for your dissection of television programs. One great advantage to TV analysis in the digital age is the ability to grab frames from video for illustrations. All of the frames in Television were captured using relatively modest Windows and Mac computers. Basically, frame grabs are done by (1) hooking a VCR to your computer using a special video card (e.g., ATI All-in-Wonder) or an external device (e.g., Snappy), (2) digitizing images from videotape, and (3) using image-editing software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop or Jose Paint Shop Pro) to touch up the images and store them in appropriate formats ( JPEG for the Web; TIFF for printing). Then insert the images into your word processing document to illuminate your discussion of lighting, set design, objective correlatives, performance, and so on. You'll find several samples of critical analyses and detailed instructions on doing video frame grabs on Television's Web site: www.'TVCrit.com. SAMPLE NARRATIVE ANALYSIS 1. Analysis of polysemy This is the core portion, the most important part, of your analysis. In this segment you should analyze the ideas that underpin programs. A. What meanings, what discourses, are encoded on the text, presented for the viewer to decode? Outline the issues involved and then flesh out that skeleton with details from the program. B. Are some meanings emphasized over others? Are some presented positively and others negatively? How? In other words, what attitude or perspective toward those meanings does the show take? Does the program seem to have a "message"? For example, if it's a program telling a story about a woman getting an abortion, does it support or condemn her decision? C. What characterizes the preferred viewer of this program? That is, what sort of viewer does this program seem to be designed for? What potential does the program offer for alternative interpretations, for what might be called "against-the-grain readings"? II. Analysis of Program Structure: Flow, Segmentation, and Interruption To effectively analyze a text's polysemy you must break down its over all structure and visual/sound style. This is where you explain how a program takes a perspective toward a certain meaning or issue. A. What recurring dilemma underpins the narrative of every episode? That is, what general dilemma is repeated every week? What is the program's continuing narrative problematic? B. Using one or two episodes to illustrate your argument, explain how a specific enigma is played out in one narrative on a particular week/day. How does this one individual episode illustrate the general dilemma of the program? How does the narrative come to an (inconclusive) conclusion? C. How is the program segmented? Where are the commercials inserted? How is the narrative segmented in order to fit between the commercials? (It would probably be useful for you to list the timing of all of the scenes and commercials in this episode as you prepare your analysis.) D. What do the commercials suggest about the target audience, the preferred viewer, of the program? Does the polysemy of the commercials support or contradict the meanings of the program? In. Analysis of Visual/Sound Style Begin by choosing a single scene from one episode of your program. List all of the shots for that scene. Draw a bird's-eye-view diagram of the positions of the actors, furniture and cameras. A. How does the mise-en-scene contribute to this episode's narrative? In other words, how do the elements of mise-en-scene communicate aspects of the story to the viewer? B. Which mode of production was used-single-camera or multiple camera? What advantages/disadvantages does this mode offer the program? How does it affect what the program can and cannot do? C. How does the organization of space through editing support the narrative? How does the variation of framing (long shot, close-up, etc.) influence our understanding of the scene? What sort of rhythm (fast? slow?) is used in the scene and why? Does the editing pull us closer to the characters or distance us? D. How do elements of music, dialogue, sound perspective, or sync help to construct the story in this episode? What do they emphasize or de-emphasize? E. What do the credits tell the viewer about the program? Specifically, what do they indicate about the show's narrative or polysemy? What do the credits re-establish each week? SAMPLE NON-NARRATIVE ANALYSIS I. Analysis of polysemy (This portion is essentially the same as for narrative programs as both analyses seek to deconstruct television's meanings.) A. What meanings, what discourses, are encoded on the text, presented for the viewer to decode? Outline the issues involved and then flesh out that skeleton with details from the program. B. Are some meanings emphasized over others? Are some presented positively and others negatively? How? In other words, what attitude or perspective toward those meanings does the show take? Does the program seem to have a "message"? C. What characterizes the preferred viewer of this program? That is, what sort of viewer does this program seem to be designed for? What potential does the program offer for alternative interpretations, for what might be called "against-the-grain readings"? II. Analysis of Non-narrative Structure A. Discuss which modes of representation your text utilizes. Be sure to cite specific examples illustrating the mode. B. Explain the implied relationship between the television world and the historical world in your text. How do the two interact? C. Explain the implied relationship between the text and the viewer. How does the text address the viewer? D. What principles dictate how the text presents its information about the historical world? In other words, how is the text organized? III. Analysis of Visual/Sound Style A. Begin by choosing a 2-minute segment (shorter, if you choose a commercial) from your text. List all of the shots for that segment. If it helps to understand the segment, draw a bird's-eye-view diagram of the positions of the social actors, historical world, and camera. B. How does the historical world mise-en-scene of this segment con tribute to the text's meaning? In other words, how do the elements of mise-en-scene communicate aspects of the text's meaning to the viewer? C. Which mode of production was used-single-camera or multiple camera? What advantages/disadvantages does this mode offer the text? D. How does the editing support the text's meaning? In other words, why were the shots presented in the order that they were? How does that order affect meaning? E. How, in this segment, does the manipulation of sound help to construct the text's meaning? |