Introduction to Television Studies Birmingham School

[Paper Keywords] Birmingham School of audience Research and cultural industries TV
[Abstract] 2O 7O century since, from the tan face communication theory and Cultural Studies of departure for television media, undoubtedly the most successful school in Birmingham. They interpret the information on the codes of the audience spoke highly of the process, opened the audience Research new doors. At the same time, they give new meaning television Industry, and stressed the audience to accept the "Culture Industry" positive creative products, which will lead the TV theory broader range of practice areas of daily life.

50 years of the 20th century, television of the mass media's emergence on the other media forms and the entire socio-cultural environment brought about by the shock, it would be difficult to describe in words. First, the technology of television has become an international medium. Not only range of means of production and dissemination of the growing internationalization, the flow of television products have gradually become part of international trade. At the same time, more than as a daily habit of emerging technologies, television is also integrated into the social customs in an unprecedented acceleration of a daily entertainment, learning, and an important tool for awareness information. in the United States, a survey, 19:01 11, all races, all social classes were most of the time people spend watching television program.

Indeed, even after 40 years of television in our daily life is still a part of so close, but it is something outside of their technology is poorly understood. TV ever be able to recruit the largest number of audience, but how does one by one television attract them, there, the attitude of their television how? can say the relationship between man and television has been a subject worthy of thought and study. "We are how people 's' daily television program do not understand the proposition *, ... make the problem more complicated it looks like in a multi-receiver, multi-channel, use the VCR era, the daily TV viewing is changing. It is along the direction of radio broadcasting to cater to different audiences towards more target movement, ,['].

From the perspective of communication theory and cultural theoretical study of television media, the most successful was undoubtedly the Birmingham School.

Birmingham School of the central body was established in 1964, the University of Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (Centre for Contem-porary Cultural Studies, CCCS), to Richard and Stuart Hall as Huojia Te representatives, mainly from the social the relationship between the presence and awareness of aspects of social studies, dissemination activities proposed to be linked with the cultural phenomenon of study, stressed the relative independence of Culture and ideology, establishing the so-called tradition of British Cultural Studies, Birmingham School is mentioned here.

Birmingham School of television Research, "the Institute of Contemporary Culture" and "media team" made the largest contribution. They are extremely broad scope of the study, from the situation within the family TV receiver to the TV as a social ideology of mass media , text analysis from TV to TV Culture Industry, have a unique insight. Here, I intend to Birmingham School of Television Research were introduced from two aspects.

First, the TV audience Research
West TV audience research can be divided into three phases: impact, use and satisfaction decoding.

1940 a 19b0-year period, "impact" study is to prove that "television on the audience has a direct impact." But the findings show that television and other mass media on people's attitudes and behavior formation not directly related to their audiences, the real impact is very complex, the audience is not writing the information available for the white media. Therefore, the impact phase of the study is a relatively simplistic model.

Between 1980 and 1960, a "uses and gratifications" research, as the audience plays a role in the overall social environment, media content incorporated into the scope of consideration to the wider use of television audience behavior, rather than simply attitude change. but 80 years later, uses and gratifications model has been widely criticized, the researchers generally agreed that the theory of the audience was too active, it seems that with television, viewers have complete and unlimited autonomy. on the "impact" in front of the television audience is no assumption of power to ward off, and use and meet the models seem to think that the audience is almighty. In addition, this study suggests that television viewers are information consumers, and the television production of meaning naturally endowed with the power of information producers, "not a good indication of the significance and the audience understand the mode of television programs',

Finally, a criticism that TV audience research in the third stage, which is the decoding phase of the concerns which we want to talk about the Birmingham School in the TV audience research work carried out.

In the late 70s, Birmingham School researchers have been trying to explore the text from the media and political and ideological significance, therefore, a large collection of media texts as a medium of material is characteristic of this period. In television studies, for TV text "meaning" generation, expression and interpretation, researchers have been given unprecedented attention, that is, "television text analysis." This work consists of three steps: First, how the cultural system of the text produce meaning; the second is Analysis of significance is based on ideology; third is to emphasize the audience is able to interpret meaning from the text in the body, thereby combining the audiences of different social contexts, information dissemination on television encoding and decoding process to study at both ends.

Such research methods, making both the TV audience research orientation of the "impact" research tradition, but also with the use of scientific models to meet, thus forming a humanistic paradigm of audience research. It is a combination of features to maximize the audience ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, race, and the different ways in the dissemination activities, research and the environment, generally called "audience + text" method of analysis.

Birmingham School of TV audience research has the following characteristics.

First, the Birmingham school of social conflict from the beginning of the manpower, the center will study the place and the audience on the construction of subjectivity, that the overall relationship in the society on the television audience in the interpretation of the text what the practice of construction of communication between . This process of information dissemination will be television encoding and decoding on both ends of an infinite expansion of a broad cultural space, in this space, a combination of cultural criticism, popular Culture, system of open research topics, thus, television activities of daily visitors has become the acceptable face of their social and cultural forces negotiations, consultations and struggle: "the audience's initiative, through the existence of certain material conditions and a variety of mutually reinforcing symbolic form to build .}}'} 3)
Second, analysis of the television text as a culture and society, a part of the relationship between political structure and ideology, introduced the concept of Vision TV. If Hall's <<encoding / decoding>> the first article stated that despite the Evangelist coding activities and audience interpretation process is to determine the link, but there are still prepared, the solution adopted by both the codes do not match the possibilities. Therefore, he advocated the ideological and political interpretation of these terms do not match, and the entire dissemination activities incorporated different social, political and cultural context of a comprehensive review. At the same time he insisted that the audience's perception of information and information may be the intention of the producer has a great difference.

Third, the "ethnography" (ethnography) is a TV audience of Birmingham School of the most unique way. This approach requires the researchers themselves deep into the culture of a community, and in which a long life, from the "inside" to provide the significance of the cultural and behavioral description.

The use of ethnography in the Birmingham school has its own unique origin. School formed early, some scholars have put this method to study the shift of the working class community life. Such as Huo Jiate the <"Cultural uses>> normally would be considered a working-class northern England between the wars, ethnographic study of community life. Birmingham Culture Research Center director of Johnson, the third in the "<so what is the cultural RESEARCH"> in the "Birmingham excellent ethnography" retained an important position. He believes that the nation is a common method of recounts, "ethnography there is a strong democratic impulse ... ... It tells us a clear but often overlooked truth of the statements of any kind of activity If those who ignore or neglect the experience of the participants directly, such statements can not be considered correct and true "River. In other words, ethnography is cultural researchers to overcome their own prejudices and ideological influence, to seeking to obtain a more realistic representation of the strategy adopted.

Birmingham School of Ethnography in the study of the use of television, and many more in-depth observation of everyday life of ordinary audience viewing behavior and the text based on their interpretation of a particular television interview in detail. As TV viewing behavior can be considered to be the West dominant national family life activities, so the family environment is often the basis of investigation, the power relations within the family, decision rules, in particular the uneven distribution of gender power, are an important research topic of TV. to Daiwei Mo Lee, for example, he was in the <"Family TV>> study of the major concerns are: (1) increasing the family's use of TV, such as watching news, playing electronic games; (2) family members of particular types of Jie Mu participation and response in different ways; (3) home television use, such as how to negotiate within the family watching television in the family members will discuss what the TV program; (4) television viewing and other aspects of family life relations. reposted elsewhere in the Research Papers Download http://www.hi138.com Birmingham School makes the work of the focus of audience research extends to the overall level of daily life, breaking the tradition of audience analysis, empirical research, quantitative research into the can not describe the true behavior of the audience to accept the case. As Molly said, ethnographic approach focusing on the interpretation of the text of television viewers, that is, of the respondents that the statements of their own viewing behavior of the text. such a study, the relative to imagine other viewers in homes and psychological to receive much more feasible.

Second, as a cultural industries TV
Birmingham School TV Another important study is the key word "culture Industry". "Culture Industry" first appeared in the well-known scholar of early Frankfurt Adorno and Horkheimer <<Dialectic of Enlightenment> "Lane, referring to the culture reduced commodity and mode of operation in accordance with product operation, and the free flow of goods through its appearance to people to think of the nerve paralysis in standardization process. But the Research School in Birmingham, the correction of the Frankfurt School critical spirit is too strong, optimistic culture of the public . Here, the culture industry no longer appears as a derogatory term absolute, but more emphasis on the audience to accept''the culture industry "product, positive creativity.

In fact, back in Birmingham School of Cultural Industries for forming before Hartley had pointed out that the British media theorist, and the audience watching TV, the only consumers but also producers. And the material consumption of different products, meaning the consumer not a one-time, in the media flow of the process of reproduction, production and reproduction of meaning is not entirely from television and film-makers. TV media is the focus of investigation Birmingham School scholars. Birmingham School television master of the theory by John in the His masterpiece <"Understanding Popular Culture>>, the extension of the Hartley's point of view, and based on the Marxist commodity exchange value and use value theory, proposed the" two economies "theory. The so-called two economies, one" financial and economic, "the first" cultural economy. "Fiske to television as an example of the culture industry, he explained the meaning of two economic theory. He said: In a capitalist society, television programs as a commodity, production and distribution in A total of two parallel and when the economic system, of which focus on financial and economic exchange value of television, the circulation of money; cultural and economic focus on the use of the value of television, the circulation of meaning and pleasure. "studio production out of a commodity, that is, a particular program, sell it to distributors, such as broadcast or cable network companies to seek profits. for all commodities, this is a simple financial exchange. However, this does not end as a television program, or a cultural commodity, not microwave or jeans that material goods. a television program of economic function, not sold after it is completed, because when it is consumed, it into a producer. It is a group created out of the audience, and then the audience has been sold to these advertisers, "River. Thus, the commercial operation of television production and consumption is actually divided into two stages. The first stage is the producers (producers) to produce television programs (products), and then sold to TV stations (consumer). The second stage is to TV viewers as the "goods" sold to advertisers, advertisers have become "consumer." broadcast programs, have become "producers" behavior. television, "product" is not a program, but the advertising air time. On the surface advertisers buy television ads playing time In fact buy the audience.

Fiske cultural economy should further put forward the original economic concept incorporated the argument. He wrote: "in the cultural economy, currency ... ... refers to the dissemination of meaning and pleasure. So here's the audience, is from a commodities into the current producers, producers of meaning and pleasure. In this culture, the economy, the original goods (TV program) into a text, a potential structure of meaning and pleasure in the discourse, the discourse structure formed an important resource for popular culture. In this cultural economy, no consumers, only the flow of meaning, because meaning is the only element of the process, It can not be commercially exploited, could not consumption: in other words, only culture in which we call continuous process, the significance can be produced, reproduction and circulation. "
Clearly, more attention to cultural products Fiske form of ideas and symbols. TV viewers are able to "produce" the meaning and pleasure, when television stations broadcast television programs to viewers when the exchange is to meet and pleasure. Here, Fiske made "Consumers are also producers of" proposition. He pointed out that a common misconception is that both the TV show, or television advertising, media products, lead the audience in the hundreds of responses is the same. Fiske pointed out that If the depth of the audience to accept the process, then there is no overall concept of the "public" and replace it with all kinds of sub-cultural groups, background, understanding of different forms, also decided on the different interpretations of the same cultural products, and different interpretations behind a different cultural environment. In this regard, Fisk emphasized that cultural and economic stage, the audience becomes a producer, their strength lies in "the flow of meaning in the cultural field and the flow of wealth in the financial economy is not the same" Court. the culture industry products, meaning producers can not produce, you can not have real control on the audience. As a result, Fiske's conclusion: "Popular culture is made up of people and not by the culture industry contributed to the" benevolence '3.

Birmingham School of scholars as a cultural part of the television industry's research ideas, the concept of culture with their definition and the status of great importance to the audience the same strain. Birmingham School to encode / decode based on the television audience research, and the TV industry or economic research, said TV, broke through the Frankfurt School pessimistic verdict, reverse the circles at the time the "passive audience" misunderstanding, given the TV audience to decode and determine the right meaning of the text, but also the "evil" media culture industry argument physics and chemistry to the study, more extensive areas of daily life practice. reposted elsewhere in the Research Papers Download http://www.hi138.com