Blog Post 3: Problems with the Televisual Audience

Isabella Wood

109094674

CCS 313

Professor Smith-Casanueva

Blog Post #3: Problems With the Televisual Audience

The issue with televisual audiences is that they have become increasingly harder to reach. As media has expanded it has began to use different parts of the Internet as outlets. Now instead of people only receiving entertainment from a television-set there are multiple ways to access television shows and news programs. There are websites such as Hulu, Netflix, and HBOGO. Amazon and Yahoo also have television shows on their websites. People also use Apple TV and DVRs for immediate access to the shows that they want to watch. This limits people from watching shows that they might not have heard of before. Before when people only had a certain amount of channels and only the Television to watch it through, they watched all of the shows that came on. This made ratings pretty even. Now with all of these options, it’s difficult to get the majority of the audiences to watch one show. Also, now people are being pigeonholed into certain genres, so it’s difficult to get people to convert. When you watch a show on an Internet based entertainment medium, you receive suggestions for shows similar. Thus making people more willing to watch the shows that are suggested to them. All of this culminates into the problem of being able to reach a mass audience at one time.

The article Yahoo’s Tumblr Teams Up With TV Shows to Reach Their Audiences written by Leslie Kaufman, mentions how Yahoo which owns Tumblr, teamed up with The Voice in order to increase participation and gain a broader audience. It started during the most recent season finally when someone’s artwork from Tumblr was displayed in the background of a performance. The purpose of this was to reach the audience of Tumblr. “Yahoo is betting that Tumblr’s alliances with popular television shows like “The Voice” will help drive its growth.” (1) Tumblr has also attracted features of other shows like MasterChef and Halt and Catch Fire. Although there is a lot of optimism, there is still a small audience with Tumblr. It is the fastest growing social media, so it has that advantage, but it doesn’t have the audience like Twitter and Facebook. So, it still has not solved the problem to reach all audiences.

In Caldwell’s article Televisual Audience he mentions that audience is a very crucial component of television. He mentions that audiences are directed to use new media technologies because it will spark a new interest in what the audience is watching. He says, “Any discussion of the televisual audience, then, must look more closely at the specific appeals that such shows make specific to viewers.” (2) Shows are being made in certain spots to attract the audience to that spot.

A trend that has started because audiences are being directed into new forms of media is binge watching. It’s so common now that the term “binge-watching” was added to Webster’s Dictionary. Media sources, like Netflix, release shows that have been on television for a while and seven seasons will go up at a time. So, instead of watching once a week for a couple of years, now you can watch a whole series in less than a month. There is also the method of creating shows and releasing them by seasons. Netflix has put out shows like House Of Cards and Orange is the New Black, which have come out by season and have created quite a large following.

I believe that there is no issue in having enough people to watch these shows. There are people who watch television on a daily basis. The issue is what time they choose to watch these shows and the path that it will take them to get there. It is the way that media and entertainment outlets are set up now, people are given a narrow view of what is available. The solution to the problem could be solved if the direction of how to get to the show is improved.

Sources

1. Kaufman, Leslie. "Yahoo’s Tumblr Teams Up With TV Shows to Reach Their Audiences." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Oct. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.

2. Caldwell. "Televisual Audience." (n.d.): n. pag. Print.