Institutions and audiences and links to citizenship

The following techniques are ways of getting to know more about how the television industry works, and how it tries to attract audiences to watch particular programmes. This is important in thinking about how the media tries to influence us, and to what extent it reflects social trends or shapes them. For background information see

• What are production companies and which are the major ones?
• Who is involved in television production?

Top and tail

Many roles contribute to a production of a television programme and can affect its content, meaning and style. Credit sequences give you information about who contributed to the programme - not just the actors, producer and directors, but all the behind-the-scenes contributors, about location, when it was made and so on. Title sequences also play a central part in branding the programme, attracting audiences and maintaining loyalty. They usually carry the main credits - the ones that are most likely to interest the audience, such as the main actors, while the end credits provide more detailed information. Analysing this information will not only give students an insight into the television industry, it will also make them more aware of how programme makers try to appeal to their interests, sentiments and desires.

Show the title sequence of television programme, and use the techniques outlined above: Freeze frame, Spot the shots or Sound and image, to help pupils identify what kind of programme it is and its target audience.

Show the production credits at the beginning and end of a television programme.

• What information do the opening credits provide?
• What information do the closing credits provide?
• What information do they provide about the source and ownership of the text, how it was produced and how it was distributed to audiences?
• What impression do they give about the type of programme it is - in the style of the title graphics, use of images and colour, type of music, pace etc?

Show the title sequences from two different programmes from the same genre or format, such as soaps, quiz shows or news broadcasts, and compare them.

• Are they appealing to similar or different audiences?
• How do they appeal to these audiences, through their use of music, colour, style, images?
• What messages do they convey about the programme? (What kind of programme it is; whether it is factual; whether it is serious or not, etc)

Attracting audiences

Most television programmes compete for audiences in a busy commercial market, so the process of publicising and promoting them plays an important role in their audience ratings. Because of the costs of making programmes, successful ratings are essential to attracting advertisers, in the case of commercial broadcasters, or to justifying the production costs, in the case of the BBC. Programmes are promoted both on screen, through the channels which own them, but also through a range of print media, websites etc. Large specialist marketing companies are often used for big promotional campaigns, and a significant proportion of programme budgets are often spent on marketing and promotion.

A useful source of information about audiences is the BARB website.

In pairs or groups, ask students to choose one new television programme or series and collect information about how it has been marketed or promoted to audiences. They should check TV listings, video catalogues, shop displays, web sites, posters, advertisements, trailers, reviews, press releases, news items and ratings. They could also identify any merchandising that has been developed to support or make more money out of the programme (such as books, CDs, DVDs, toys etc).

• The groups then present their findings to the rest of the class. They should consider what may have contributed to the success (or the failure) of a programme to find its audience.
• Create a classroom display on the marketing of the programme.
• Re-design a poster or advert for the programme to target a different audience.
• Design a range of merchandise for a moving image text. Students could do these for a particular target audience, eg for a younger audience.