Media Case Study in Friends Tv Show
Case Study
Introduction
The society of nowadays is filled with advertisements, messages, films, blogs, technology, etc. The meanings that they carry have to be transmitted to the audience through different media. (Branston and Stafford, 2006) It appears important for the receiver to analyse and understand the meanings carried by each type of medium. In order to do so, the different “vehicles” used by media have to be identified. Different vehicle theories include: semiotics, genres, narratives, representation, audiences, etc. (Ibidem) And while they all have to be gathered and related to form a medium, these theories have on their own signs to be interpreted by the viewer.
Media has to construct meanings about the world in order to represent it appropriately or logically enough for the audience to understand, and make sense out of what they are seeing. (O’Sullivan etal., 1994) Representations of the world have to be understood by the audience. It allows an easier and faster understanding of what media is trying to portray and by doing so saves time needed to achieve other goals o since the media has limits of time and space. (Wilson, 1993) For instance, T.V. shows, in order to save time and capture viewers in the story faster, resort to stereotypes “There may be a shared recognition of the world as represented through familiar or dominant images and ideas” (O’Sullivan etal., 1994)
A good example of a type of media that uses representations as a way to help audience identify with the world presented on T.V. is the very popular show named: Friends. It debuted in 1994 through NBC and moved on to become one of the shows with the highest rate in television. It won multiple awards during its time on air until its end in May 2004. In 2002 the show won an Emmy for outstanding comedy series. (TBS.com, 2009) It had a big cultural impact, for instance, phrases from the sitcom became common in American slang, and songs from the show became very famous around the
Introduction
The society of nowadays is filled with advertisements, messages, films, blogs, technology, etc. The meanings that they carry have to be transmitted to the audience through different media. (Branston and Stafford, 2006) It appears important for the receiver to analyse and understand the meanings carried by each type of medium. In order to do so, the different “vehicles” used by media have to be identified. Different vehicle theories include: semiotics, genres, narratives, representation, audiences, etc. (Ibidem) And while they all have to be gathered and related to form a medium, these theories have on their own signs to be interpreted by the viewer.
Media has to construct meanings about the world in order to represent it appropriately or logically enough for the audience to understand, and make sense out of what they are seeing. (O’Sullivan etal., 1994) Representations of the world have to be understood by the audience. It allows an easier and faster understanding of what media is trying to portray and by doing so saves time needed to achieve other goals o since the media has limits of time and space. (Wilson, 1993) For instance, T.V. shows, in order to save time and capture viewers in the story faster, resort to stereotypes “There may be a shared recognition of the world as represented through familiar or dominant images and ideas” (O’Sullivan etal., 1994)
A good example of a type of media that uses representations as a way to help audience identify with the world presented on T.V. is the very popular show named: Friends. It debuted in 1994 through NBC and moved on to become one of the shows with the highest rate in television. It won multiple awards during its time on air until its end in May 2004. In 2002 the show won an Emmy for outstanding comedy series. (TBS.com, 2009) It had a big cultural impact, for instance, phrases from the sitcom became common in American slang, and songs from the show became very famous around the
References: Branston, G. and Stafford, R. ( 2006) The Media Student’s Book. 4th ed. Routledge. U.K. Pp. 141-156 Blinkx.com (no date) Friends. The one with the joke. Retrieved online on 3rd October 2009 from: http://www.blinkx.com/video/friends-the-one-with-the-joke/CljtsymVdOFbvw5xENhNNQ O’Sullivan, T. etal. (1994) Studying the media. An Introduction. St. Martin’s Press Inc. New York, U.S.A. Pp 113, 115, 117, 122, and 125. Tbs.com (2009) Friends, About the show. Retrieved online on 3rd October 2009 from : http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,268,00.html Wilson, S. (1993) Mass Media, Mass Culture. 3rd ed. Mc Graw Hill. United States. Pp. 225-236 Warnerbros.com (2009) Friends. Retrieved online on 3rd October 2009 from: http://www.warnervideo.com/friends15/