Television Narratives

Series Structure&

Industry Shifts

It’s TV… even on your SmartPhone

Television reaches large audiences (even in the post-network era) and communicates• Ideas• Values• Morals…

Television is easily accessible and potentially “cheap”.

Post-Network Television• Multi-Channel Transition• Fragmentation of Audiences• Expansion of programmable hours

• Who gets to tell a story, on which platform?

• Which stories appear on what channel?

• How do audiences work with the stories presented when there is so much to choose?

Phenomenal Television• “current” topics and themes (seen often)• The “kind” of outlet for a program• Brand (station/showrunner/genre)• Water-Cooler programs• Cultural Capital upsetting the norm

It’s not a Movie, it’s TVAll forms of televisual storytelling…• Are build on the premise of interruption• Require (at different levels) knowledge of

characters and/or plot for full enjoyment

Series:• Form inherited from radio• Multiple Protagonists• Exposition reduced via repetition and consistency• Form of interruption affects the internal act structure

(climax/resolution)• Not all forms of narrative basis resolved at episode’s end

maintaining counterforce(s)• Core “enigma” remains open for ongoing viewing

TV

• Electronic Public Sphere – Mega-Events• Subcultural Form – Niche Markets• Window to Other Worlds – Interloping• Gated Community – UGC / Fan communities /

personalized viewing schedules

Transmedia Storytelling• Supplementing the TV/series/serial narrative

on another platform (NOT spin-off, ads, etc.)• It enhances the storyworld, adding extensions

• Affects series (and serial) narratives in varying degrees “Office” vs. Defiance”

Next week on…• The TV Series• The Primetime Serial• TV Genres• Web-TV?• Transmedia

Storytelling