CNBC and Kensho Partner Up
Media technology is constantly changing, allowing networks to provide more dimensional content for their viewers. While these new developments aid the industry, the industry’s success is reliant on the audience’s views, and therefore a well-informed and controlled audience.
Caldwell argues in his piece “Televisual Audience: Interactive Pizza” that the media industry has been teaching audiences how to use new technologies for a while now. When the camcorder was first introduced in the 80’s, many people didn’t really know what to do with them, so the networks took advantage of the situation and taught them. “Although television itself had been a public target for hit-and-run interventions by tape activists in the first revolution, the tables were turned. Shows like America’s Funniest were instead public interventions into the private sphere”(275).
So
what did America’s Funniest “teach”
audiences? It taught viewers that camcorders are narrow-mindedly for capturing
family moments, for the purpose of creating keepsakes and personal nostalgia.
The network limited the uses of the camcorder as to divert people from creating
their own content for mass entertainment to keep competition and an entire
industry upheaval from occurring.
The New York Times reported on November
19th that CNBC partnered up with Kensho, an analytic software
company. This addition to CNBC’s newscasts will bring a new dynamic of insight
to the audience. “The analytics will tell viewers and visitors to the CNBC
website, for example, how energy stocks have historically responded after a
huge snowstorm”. To the audience, the affiliation is showing them what to do
with their stocks. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of power in swaying stocks
(even if based off of accurate historical analysis), but CNBC is actually
effecting the audience in another way.
Just
as with America’s Funniest Home Videos,
CNBC is telling the viewer how this information/new advancement is best suited
for use. In this case, CNBC is saying that data analysis technology should be
used for following the stock market, even though the technology is in reality
limitless. For example, a consumer could use Kensho’s software to analyze
network or company spending to determine if they want to get involved with the
organization, but instead CNBC is limiting the audience’s creativity and
thereby keeping control.
“In
a news release, the companies said that they would also collaborate on digital
products that bring ‘actionable insights and analytics to ordinary investors’.”
This statement not only blatantly states the companies' manipulative thoughts (interesting word choices on their part), but also brings to question CNBC’s view of their audience. This brings the conversation to Miller. Miller discusses the difference in how the industry perceives their audience between Television Studies 1.0 and 2.0 in his book titled Television Studies: The
Basic. Television Studies 1.0 treats the viewers as though they possess
sponges for brains that will soak up anything presented to them in a brainwashing manner. Television Studies 2.0 sees television as completely not having any influence on the audience. By stating
that they are presenting the audience with “actionable insights,” CNBC is
claiming to provide suggestions which viewers should and will follow without questioning them, thereby controlling their audience.
Sources:
Caldwell, John Thornton. "Televisual Audience: Interactive Pizza."Televisuality: Style, Crisis, and Authority in American Television. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1995. 249-83. Print.
Kaufman, Leslie. "A Partnership With CNBC Adds Context to Its News."The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Nov. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
Miller, Toby. Television Studies: The Basics. London: Routledge, 2010. 110-45. Print.
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