FMS 150: Marketing of Youth TV PROF. BEN KRUGER -ROBBINS WEEK 10 Thesis for this week Conglomeration and streaming have blurred lines between “traditional” broadcast programming and narrowcasting, resulting in a glut of youth-driven TV platforms and viewing options. Nonetheless, superhero cross-media “universes” have emerged as sites of “big tent” marketing, with brands like Marvel and DC catering to teen and young adult audiences but also exerting hegemonic influence over the media industries writ large. On one hand, these programs/platforms have expanded representation, in some cases enfranchising historically marginalized viewers and broadening the appeal of traditionally delegitimated genres (fantasy, comics, horror). On the other, they have imposed a particularly corporate youth-centric, straight, and safely “multicultural” disposition on cultural production, inhibiting other furtive avenues for creative development. Broadcast and Streaming: A Capitalist Love Story BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN TELEVISION P L AT F O R M S Review: Conglomeration and Horizontal Integration Communications Act of 1996 allows for horizontal integration/corporate mergers, beginning with ABC/Disney appearance of choice but, by 2012, six major companies control majority of media production/distribution Streaming DOES NOT change the industrial dynamic – companies like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video rely on content produced by these conglomerates and aired previously on network/cable TV ◦ Works to dispel the myth that networks and streaming platforms are at odds; rather, as Christopher Anderson observed about film studios and TV networks in the 1950s, media companies engage synergistic opportunities to “rebrand” amidst technological/cultural change Streaming Content and Conquest Streaming services have moved in the direction of producing their own shows to profits and awards acclaim, though libraries still reliant on preexisting content Each conglomerate has followed suit in developing and/or acquiring their own exclusive services to maintain/expand control over valuable libraries and propagate brand control under seemingly “diverse” banners (Hulu/Disney/Disney+/Fox/ABC, HBO Max/WarnerMedia/The CW, Peacock/NBC/Comcast, Paramount+/CBS/Viacom) ◦ Anti-trust regulations loosened under President Trump’s FCC chairman Ajit Pai, both in terms of corporate mergers and formerly marginal companies like Sinclair Media amassing ownership of local network affiliates/imposing editorial control over content Case Study: The CW’s Complex Positioning Caryn Murphy describes the CW as a broadcast network that adopts the practices of a cable channel, noting that it is slower to cancel lowrated shows that may foster “niche” appeal over the long term She suggests that programs like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin (along with our earlier case-study for this week, The Vampire Diaries) may be created less for traditional broadcast TV and more for dissemination on streaming platforms where they can foster dedicated cult audiences The CW has more recently “utilized comic book adaptations to fundamentally shift its audience composition” to move away from an audience comprised 70% of 18–34-year-old women toward “a composition almost evenly split between male and female viewers” in 2015 Storytelling Developments LO N G - F O R M T R A N S M E D I A P RO P E RT I ES A S “Q UA L I T Y ” YO U T H S H OW S Cable “Legitimation” Before/During the Streaming Era “Prestige” cable networks work to differentiate their brands from “traditional” TV while others revert more heavily toward “guilty pleasure” reality programming (some stations engage both strategies simultaneously) Media scholars Michael Newman and Elana Levine have discussed this trend as “legitimation” – gender/classes “quality” TV as more masculine, socially conscious, culturally significant Shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad (AMC); The Wire (HBO); The Shield (FX) designated in the early 2010s as signifiers that television had entered a “second golden age” Convergence and Digital Technologies Franchising and spinoffs ◦ Web fandoms gain increasing influence & traction during the 2000s/2010s but are also manipulated by corporate entities ◦ DVD sets “legitimate” and elevate certain TV programs and allow for “binge” viewing, a precursor to streaming strategies Transmedia storytelling ◦ Narratives across variety of media (web, broadcast, film, etc.) ◦ Hyper-diegesis and transmedia world-building where texts cross multiple platforms to form universes/complex mythologies (most prominently, the Marvel Cinematic Universe) The CW as “Quality” Youth Network Network has worked to break away from its initially “feminine” niche coding to establish a “quality” youth brand based in genre subversion, superhero spectacle, and “diverse” representations; gendered and classed appeal to more male, upscale audiences Evident in transition from more “soap operatic” productions like The Vampire Diaries to “socially relevant” superhero entries like Supergirl, The Flash, and Black Lightning The Vampire Diaries Premiered on the CW in 2009 and featured a narrative vaguely reminiscent of the Twilight book/film series but with a more ironic, tongue-in-cheek tone; follows the love triangle between the teenage mortal Elena Gilbert and the vampire siblings Stefan and Damon Salvatore Rebecca Williams understands The Vampire Diaries (and other CW fare of the late 2000s/early 2010s) as inhabiting a culturally “in-between” space re: horror/supernatural programming – neither a “quality” series like HBO’s True Blood nor a critically delegitimated “teen-girl” media text such as Twilight Reads all this critique as uniquely gendered/misogynistic – The Vampire Diaries derided for its “soap operatic” positioning and visual/narrative appeal to teenage girls (and young queer folks) but celebrated for its more “masculine” virtues – complex storytelling, auteur (Kevin Williamson) showrunner, and cinematic aesthetics Supergirl and The CW’s Superhero Franchises The CW adopted Supergirl, a show that CBS originally aired to try to expand its appeal to younger audiences, to assemble it with other serialized DC properties and build a CW/DC universe under the banner of corporate parent WarnerMedia; allowed The CW to retain its investment in feminist (or “postfeminist”) positioning while changing its brand identity and capturing a more male audience Cements The CW’s “identification with series that encourage investment in a specific narrative universe or mythology” and which bolster “multicultural” representations while discouraging independent productions outside of preestablished franchises/dominant genres FMS 150: MARKETING OF YOUTH TV Prof. Ben Kruger-Robbins Seminar: March 10, 2021  Initial reactions to Supergirl, “Pilot” and/or The Vampire Diaries “Family Ties”? Caryn Murphy’s and Rebecca Williams’s writings?  How do these programs speak to cross-platform corporate marketing and/or incorporate transmedia narrative strategies? How are they linked aesthetically or thematically to the CW "brand"?  Who do these shows appear to be targeting and how so? In what ways do they seem tied to either a "broadcast network" and/or "streaming" ethos?  In what ways do these episodes grapple with "diversity"? How does each show attend to (or fail to address) "feminist" and/or "multicultural" imperatives? To what ideological effect(s)?  How are these shows similar to or distinctive from earlier WB/UPN programs like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and/or other network-branded entries from earlier weeks? How do they encourage (or deter) consumer citizenship amongst young viewers? DISCUSSION QUESTIONS  What are Rebecca Williams’s and/or Caryn Murphy’s main points, arguments, or interventions? What perspectives do these scholars offer on the programs they invoke? How do they grapple with The CW’s negotiated politics?  How do Williams and/or Murphy contextualize these programs as "quality" youth television? What are the social/political limitations tied to this categorization, and how does the designation affect our readings of The Vampire Diaries and Supergirl?  How do our authors describe the tensions or contradictions around 2010s youth television and modes of marketing/audience address? What might be some limitations of their modes of inquiry? What/who gets left out of the discussion? DISCUSSION QUESTIONS LOG IN : xued4@uci.edu PASSWORD: Vero221674
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