Transcript Media in the US

Media in the US
Television
• There are 3 basic types of TV in the US:
broadcast, cable and satellite.
• Broadcast TV is available to anyone who owns
a TV for free.
• The four major TV networks in the US are NBC
(National Broadcasting Company), CBS
(Colombia Broadcasting System), ABC
(American Broadcasting Company) and FOX
• The US does not have a national broadcasting
station run by the government.
• There are the large networks, and smaller
local stations which may be connected with or
owned and operated by the major networks.
• The local stations will usually produce their
own local news programs, but will use the rest
of their time running the programs developed
by the networks, or bought off independent
producers (syndicated).
• Most stations connected with the major
networks run similar schedules.
• In the mornings during the week there will be
a local news show, then a network morning
show which mixes news, weather, interviews
and music.
• Afterwards the talk shows will be on.
• At noon, there will be another local news
program, then usually the soap operas.
• In the afternoon major talk shows like the
Oprah Winfrey show will be on.
• In the early evening, there will be more local
news, then the network news will be on.
• After dinner, prime-time network shows come on.
• The earlier shows are usually family-oriented
comedy programs or reality shows such as
‘Dancing with the Stars’
• Later, the Dramas come on, shows like CSI or
Grey’s Anatomy
• More news is on at ten or eleven, followed by the
late night interview shows like the ‘Late Show
with David Letterman’ or ‘ The Tonight Show’
• During the late night and early mornings,
stations may run news, or reruns of popular
shows, or often infomercials.
• Infomercials are advertising that is much
longer than normal advertisements on
television, and promote a product in more
depth.
• Saturday mornings are usually children’s
programs like cartoons.
• Weekend afternoons are mainly sport.
• There are public TV stations, which are not
designed to earn money.
• The main organization is the Public
Broadcasting Service.
• These stations tend to produce programs that
are not as popular as the commercial
programs, but which are often more
educational, or concerned with culture or
public affairs.
Cable and Satellite TV
• Cable television was used originally just to
provide access to television to areas which did
not receive the broadcast signals.
• This slowly changed until today most
American households receive cable TV.
• Unlike the broadcast networks, which let the
local stations run slightly different programs to
each other, the cable networks run the same
programs everywhere.
• Satellite TV is similar to cable except that a
satellite dish receives the signal, instead of a
cable.
• The different types of networks, broadcast and
cable, have slightly different ways of making
money.
• The commercial broadcast networks like CBS and
Fox make their money mainly from advertising.
• The public broadcasting networks like PBS
support themselves by asking for donations and
subscriptions
• The basic cable companies have some
advertising, but also get people to pay for
subscriptions
• Premium cable networks, like HBO, do not
have advertisements, but charge a higher rate
than basic cable networks.
Programming
• American TV programs have been very
successful around the world.
• One type of popular program is the situation
comedy, commonly called the Sitcom.
• These programs are comedies which usually
feature a few standard characters in a certain
situation, and are generally about 30 mins
long.
• Two famous and popular sitcoms were Friends
and Seinfeld.
• Both were shows featuring a small group of
friends with quirky behaviours, who got into
various funny situations.
• Drama series are more serious shows, dealing
with topics of life and death.
• Years ago, westerns were a popular form of
drama series, but not anymore, although
Deadwood, on HBO, was still popular.
• Drama series these days are dominated by crime
dramas, like CSI, and medical shows, like House,
MD.
• Other drama type shows which have become
more popular are supernatural type programs,
about things like vampires or monsters, and
science fiction shows.
• Shows about vampires were cult classics in the
90s with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel,
both created by Joss Whedon.
• These days vampire shows are more popular and
mainstream, following the success of movies like
Twilight.
• Other shows like Supernatural also combine
drama and supernatural themes.
• Science fiction shows like the X-Files were also
popular in the 90s, but these days tend to get
smaller, but very dedicated audiences eg.
Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, etc.
• Network news programs on the major
broadcast stations have huge audiences, adn
generally have one very famous news
presenter to represent the program, like Dan
Rather on CBS, and Tom Brokaw on NBC.
• Reality television has existed in the US for a
long time, with shows like COPS, in which real
police are followed around by cameramen.
• The combination of reality show and
competition has become more popular
though, with the success of shows like
Survivor, Big Brother, American Idol etc.
• Soap operas are dramas which tend to be
concerned more with relationships and
romantic issues, and storylines tend to
continue for ling periods of time.
• In the US, these types of shows are very
popular, and many have been running for over
40 years, like Days of Our Lives.
• Game shows are a type of program that puts
the contestants in a competition on stage with
a presenter
• Late night talk shows are generally an
opportunity for actors and musicians to
promote new films or albums, and generally
have a charismatic presenter who interviews
them and makes jokes.
• The daytime talk shows can be more serious,
like Oprah Winfrey, or ridiculous, like the Jerry
Springer show, in which crazy situations are
set up on stage to cause conflict between the
people being interviewed.
• Children’s programs are not as popular on
broadcast Tv, but shows which combine
traditional children’s formats, like cartoons,
with adult humour have been very successful.
• The Simpsons was the start of this trend, and
these shows have become increasingly meant
for adults, like Family Guy and South Park.
• The standard season for broadcast TV is 22
episodes in a season, although sitcoms often
have more.
• On cable television it is usually ten to twelve
episodes.
• Daytime Soap operas run all through the year.
• Broadcast television is regulated by the FCC,
the Federal Communications Commission.
• This is a government organisation which gives
the licenses to the local TV stations, and
makes rules about compulsory educational
and public interest programming
• The FCC also bans certain things from being
shown on TV at certain times, like during the
day, if they are considered indecent eg.nudity
and swearing.
• Although late at night more is allowed, the
broadcast networks usually don’t show these
sorts of things on TV, as they depend on
advertisers for their money, and are worried
about losing income and tighter controls by
the government.
• Cable channels , especially premium cable,
can put whatever they want on, however, so
shows on these networks tend to have more
explicit content.
• Some channels have pornography, or
programs with a lot of nudity, sex and violence.
Cinema
• The early days of cinema in the US were based
around New York
• When the technology was still being
developed, however, there were problems
deciding who owned the patents, and so
companies who did not have rights to the
technology set up in places like California.
• The early films were silent, although the
quality was quite good.
• Because the films did not have any sound, the
actors used mainly body language and facial
expressions to show what was happening.
• Any dialogue or explanations of story had to
be shown to the audience by using subtitles.
• Because of the limitations of not being able to
talk, most of the early films were slapstick
comedy, with actors such as Charlie Chaplin
and Buster Keaton
• Music to the films was often provided by live
orchestras.
• During the 1920s, while Hollywood was taking
over the world’s film industry with its silent
movies, the technology was being developed to
produce movies with sound.
• By the end of 1929, almost all of the Hollywood
movies were “talkies”.
• This began what is usually referred to as the
Golden Age of Hollywood, which lasted until the
late 1940s
• The actors of this period were huge stars such as
Clark Gable, Katherine Hepburn, Humphrey
Bogart and Greta Garbo, but the biggest of all
was the child star Shirley Temple
• The new technology of sound mixed with film
also meant that the change was quite
expensive, and smaller companies were forced
out of business.
• This left the large film companies, like Warner
Brothers, to take advantage of the new
technology and the huge crowds who wanted
to see it.
• Musical films became popular because sound
could be used, and also many monster films
were made, like Dracula, Frankenstein and
King Kong.
• Also in the 30s, Walt Disney started to
produce feature length films, with Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs.
• In 1939 two very famous films were released,
The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind.
• With the start of the war, the 1940s brought
many patriotic propaganda films, and
Humphrey Bogart starred in films such as
Casablanca, and The Maltese Falcon, the
beginning of film noir.
• Film noir was the name given to stylish
Hollywood crime dramas, with cynical heroes and
sexual themes.
• The 40s also saw the release of the movie many
consider the greatest of all time, Citizen Kane,
made by Orson Welles.
• During the Golden Age of Hollywood, the biggest
studios such as MGM had a huge amount of
control over the industry, because they owned
the production studios where the movies were
made, and the theaters were they were shown,
and controlled the most famous actors
• The Golden Age came to an end when the
government brought in new laws that stopped
the major studios from owning the studios
and theaters.
• This type of law is known as antitrust law, and
it is designed to prevent big companies from
getting monopolies, and to make sure there is
competition between companies.
• The other thing which had a great impact on
the film companies was the introduction of
television.
• The style of the movies made during the
“Golden Age” of Hollywood was fairly
straightforward.
• The storylines were mostly centered on a
romantic (love) story combined with a real
world plot (such as war or business or crime).
• The style of the movies started to change in
the 50s and 60s, with movies like “2001:A
Space Odyssey” and “Easy Rider”.
• “Easy Rider” is a movie about the counterculture of the 60s.
• The main characters were drug dealers and
users, and are riding their motorbikes across
the US.
• The movie was cheap to make, and was
written, acted in and produced by the two
stars, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda.
• “2001: A Space Odyssey” was a very different
movie; very expensive to make, it was a
science fiction movie directed by Stanley
Kubrick
• It was actually filmed in England, but
produced by MGM, a Hollywood movie
company, and directed by an American.
• The 1970s was the “New Hollywood”, and the
movies that were made during the early years
of this period used different techniques and
styles.
• More movies had complicated timelines, the
storylines had twists and the main characters
were not just ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
• The content of the movies became more
explicit as well: sex and violence became
shown in a more obvious way.
• Controversial films like “A Clockwork Orange”
and “Dirty Harry” were made in the early 70s.
• New American directors emerged in the 70s.
• Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman
Polanski, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and
Brian de Palma all had great successes during
this time.
• Hollywood companies gave these directors a
lot of control over their films, and they
created movies that were very popular, and
also of a high quality.
• Scorsese – Taxi Driver
• Coppola – The Godfather movies/Apocalypse
Now
• Polanski – Chinatown
• Spielberg – Jaws
• Lucas – Star Wars
• Ridley Scott - Alien
• Some of the films in which the directors had a
lot of control failed, however, and wasted
huge amounts of money on movies which noone wanted to see.
• As a result, the studio companies put more
controls on what the directors could do.
• They started to focus on ‘blockbusters’ to
make money.
• In the 1980s the Hollywood movies were
dominated by blockbusters, sequels and
special effects.
• George Lucas made two more Star Wars
movies and Spielberg made ET, and three
Indiana Jones movies, all of which were
extremely successful
• Other science fiction movies like Blade Runner
(Ridley Scott), and the Back to the Future
movies did very well also.
• Some of the stars of the time made many
movies.
• Harrison Ford was in all of the star wars
movies, all of the Indiana Jones movies, and
Blade Runner.
• Other stars also became famous, especially for
roles in action movies, which became even
more popular.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger made his first popular
Hollywood film, Conan the Barbarian in 1982
• In 1984, he really hit the big-time, with James
Cameron’s ‘The Terminator’
• He soon followed this success with
Commando, Raw Deal, Running Man, Red
Heat and Predator.
• Sylvester Stallone was another major action
star of the 80s, making more Rocky movies,
and starting the Rambo movies.
• Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van
Damme and Steven Seagal also started to
appear in action movies.
• Comedy movies during the 1980s were
dominated by performers from the TV show
Saturday Night Live, a comedy sketch show.
• Stars such as Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and
Dan Ayckroyd had a lot of success with movies
like Ghostbusters, Caddyshack and the Blues
Brothers.
• The number of people watching home videos
increased, and film companies started putting
their movies onto video to sell directly to the
public
• In the 1990s, special effects blockbusters kept
getting more popular, with movies like
Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Jurassic Park
and Titanic becoming hugely popular.
• Independent style films also started to
become popular, however, with movies made
by companies separate from the big studios,
or by independent filmmakers.
• Quentin Tarantino made his cult hit ‘Resevoir
Dogs’ in 1992, and followed it up with the
more successful movie ‘Pulp Fiction’ in 1994
• Use of DVDs also became more popular in the
1990s, starting to take over from video
casettes.
• In the 2000s, Documentary filmmaking started
to really make money, with successes such as
Michael Moore’s ‘Bowling for Columbine’ and
‘Farenheit 911’.
• Epic historical cinema, popular in the golden
age with movies like ‘Ben Hur’ and ‘Spartacus’
made a comeback with Gladiator.
• Movies based on comic books have also
become more and more popular.
• The Batman movies, which had been falling in
quality for years, were given new life by
director Christopher Nolan.
• The Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, Iron Man, the
X-men, The Watchmen, Fantastic Four and
Hellboy all became successful movies in the
2000s
• With the start of a new decade, blockbuster
special effects movies still dominate eg Avatar