04.02.2013TV SERIES: CONTENT AND SCOPE
Sona Manusyan
Expert at the Center for Information Studies, “Noravank” Foundation, PhD (Psychology)
Diana Galstyan
Expert at the Center for Information Studies, “Noravank” Foundation
The TV series has thus taken a root in the activity of the TV companies and in the life of the TV viewers that it is inevitable not to turn our attention specifically to them while scrutinizing the problems of the TV content. In terms of both TV scope and discussion of the professional problems of the broadcasting the TV series are among the first. The issues of undesirable axiological and behavioral influences are discussed, thus underlining random factors caused by either purposeful or non-professional actions. TV series of local (and not only local) production cause concern by spreading inauspicious ideas, vocabulary and way of talking, presenting malicious modules of intra-family and intra-personal relationship and shallow heroes, habituating society to crimes and vicious behavior. One of the sociologists1 said: “TV series cannot but reflect the reality but it does not mean that all the deputies are criminals. And the relationships shown become a rule. You rather turn to an underworld leader than to police. This causes change of values”. Despite the criticism in address of the TV series they became a dominant way of spending leisure time and in this aspect they are high in ratings. In the report of the Public Television Board on the activity of the Public Television for 2011, taking as grounds the rating figures presented by “Telemediacontrol” Company, it is mentioned that “in 2011 “Anna 2” and “School of Angels” TV series were among top 10 TV programmes which had the biggest audience on the Armenian TV… “Anna 2” had the biggest audience on the Armenian TV in 2011” 2. At the same time in the aforementioned report in the aspect of the distribution of the scope of the TV prgrammes the TV series were not presented separately, thus being united in “Cultural programmes (including films)” thematic direction, which received impressing 31% of the TV scope. The advantage of the high ratings of the TV series and at the same time public criticism of their quality cause a situation when in order to gain advantage TV companies can, on the one hand, underline the weight of the series and, on the other hand, avoid it.
The “race” of the homemade TV series has begun between the Armenian TV channels; the TV viewing grid is filled with the TV series which are repeated several times. As a matter of fact the main “burden” of leveling, typifying, value spreading function of the TV falls on them. In Russia the bases of TV viewing grid also consists of the homemade TV series – 4 of 5 hours of prime-time (19:00-24:00) are allotted to TV series3. Today the TV series “boom” is inherent in all the countries with developed TV companies and their list is topped by Russia4. In case with the latter the timeline of the TV series watched every day constitute unprecedented 4 hours, thus covering most of the daily television viewing. In other words in the aspect of tendency “we are not alone”. Hence, from the point of view of ideology and values the availability or even their abundance is not a problem; by saying TV series we can understand production of very different quality and meant for different audience – from popular soap operas to historical or detective series; from cheap TV series with cheap cast to some projects abroad which can lay claim to be a works of art.
The monitoring of programmes in the prime-time (18:00-24:00) on the TV channels (H1, “Shoghakat”, “Yerkir Media”, “Kentron”) carried out in November 20115 allows to see the specific weight and content of the TV series. In the aspect of the broadcasting time given to the TV series H1 takes leading positions (25.8%) thus turning the main orientation of the Public TV into an entertaining one. Let us also mention that against the background of the abundance of the TV series, the scarcity of the feature film stands out (4.1%). One-genre homemade TV series which demonstrate hard lot of people (the leading characters of the stories live in bad conditions, they are disdained by “authoritative”, wealthy people, they are often powerless in front of quirks of fate) are shown. Among these TV series are “Sweet Life”, “Anna 2”, “Carousel of Life”, “School of Angels”. “Shoghakat” is the second among the TV channels broadcasting TV series in prime-time (16.4%). Hence, here the genre and orientation of the series cardinally differ – “Dr. Zhivago”, “Odyssey”, “Commissar Megre” and “Roman Mysteries”. Over the same period “Kentron” channel broadcasted Russian “Doctor Tirsa” TV series (6.1% of prime-time). “Yerkir Media” assigned 10.3% of its prime-time for TV series (“The Iron Empress”). According to the representative of the TV channel while choosing TV series they are guided by the goal of showing honest human relations and models to emulate, thus differing from other TV channels. Of course some differences between the TV channels in the aspect of the ideological “profile”, orientation of the TV series shown can be observed, but not to the extent as it is in Russia. For example, “Rossia” TV channel specializes in patriotic series while CTC – in comedies, etc. And at the same time, TV companies there, in order not to lose their ratings and advertisers, avoid going beyond their ideological scope6.
And today in Armenia, generally speaking, homemade, “being written in the process of filming” “unhappy” series with inconsistent scripts prevail. Thus, conforming by the social type of their heroes only with some part of our society they are, nevertheless, imposed on the rest of the audience. As one of the media-experts said: “… if 2-years long unhappy family life of Anna is inherent to 2 or even 10% of the Armenian families, they have no right to impose it to all the families”. In this aspect there is some craft in the arguments of the TV channels’ representatives that they are taking as a ground the demand of the audience. It would be appropriate to say that they do not want to listen to other demands.
Unlike local picture the international experience allows seeing that TV series can be interesting for progressive and educated TV viewer and compete with full-length films in terms of direction, camera work, plot and cast. Such TV series as “House M.D.”, “Mad Men” successfully suggest new subjects of thought and new heroes. Even more, young people, identifying themselves with the hero chose the profession of doctor. “This is contradictory hero; he is neither typically positive nor typically negative as the hero should be in our times when many usual values are disputed”, - says A. Akopov7.
This allows prejudicing the widespread line of criticism according to which TV series suggest alien values and behavior. We can mention with sore heart that today’s TV production is “closed” in the bad sense and insensible towards the world; it cannot “import” the approaches which could promote the development of the society. The TV series cause problems first of all due to the fact that they put into circulation anachronistic behavior and subjects (as well as plots without subject). They rather reproduce yesterday than today and they are shifted to our days by being played in front of a new generation. For example, though today the type of “nouveau riches”, “criminal authorities”, “underworld leaders” are not as topical as they were 10 years ago, today “wealthy” “good guys” from TV series are artificially shifted to our period and make apprehend it as prevailing picture. In this aspect out situation is similar to the model of many Russian TV series where residual Soviet phenomena are presented in hyperbolized way and they are presented as “preserved” characters. According to the film critic D. Dondurey, “almost all the heroes of the Russian TV series are victims of circumstances who are passive in the issue of choosing their destiny”8, and this is also a characteristic feature of the Armenian TV series. The script does not allow raising new questions, creating new dynamic characters (not only for today but for tomorrow either) that face new challenges.
Of course the audience and its culture also matters. Today due to the availability of Internet and satellite TV there is an alternative in the form of qualitative TV series but for the Armenian TV viewer the homemade TV series are more influential. Unlike foreign TV series the heroes live in the same city where they live, speak the same language, wear similar clothes, they appear in the situation a common viewer may appear in, and episodes are shot in the familiar places. That is the reason why the viewer easier identifies himself with the heroes of these series, thus considering himself as “a part” of that reality, and takes the condition of the heroes as something very close to them. The solutions offered by the heroes of TV series are, particularly, taken by young people as a means of handling their own problems. In addition, every TV channel turns the actors, playing in their TV series, into public figures around which they build their broadcasting. For example, many of those actors work as TV-presenters, the others often become their guests; every piece of information connected with these actors – their birthdays, weddings, etc. – is broadly covered.
Simply speaking, the TV series cannot but exist. All over the world they have turned into the main income item for the TV companies and losing it may become an obstacle on the way of general development of TV companies and of preparing the programmes of other formats. Besides, people have almost got addicted to this format, partially because the film watching audience moved from the cinemas to their homes in front of wide flat screens. Taking into consideration the importance of the TV series both for audience and producers, one should also speak rather about qualitative changes, professionalism, genre diversity, as well as becoming more sensitive to the needs of different audiences than about their abolishment.
According to some opinions, the possibility of qualitative changes of the TV series is in direct proportion to the production prices and accumulated revenues, i.e. the economic factor is decisive.: “Only when the prices will approach the western prices then the changes in quality can be observed”, - said V.Ryashin9. According to some other points of view, the main reason is rather the ideological crisis than the lack of money. Today in Russia, just like in western countries, they take into consideration the viewer, thus trying to make investments, carry out studies on preferences of the audience, make the TV series more targeted and substantial. In Armenia it is not even discussed yet: the TV production and viewer are considered to deserve each other. The low quality of TV series is explained by the level or simply the demand of the viewer. “TV series have demand. We form an opinion based on the phone calls, And there are plenty of phone calls”, - said the Head of the Films Department of the Armenian Public TV R.Avetisyan10. In the opinion of one of the experts we questioned: “The TV channels follow the stereotype approaches, dated schemes. They shoot TV series at low prices and offer it to the TV viewers, thus thinking it will provide their rating. Today there are different research organizations which deal with the ratings of the TV series, programmes, but there is, in my opinion, some kind of fraud. Of course if you broadcast some show in prime-time people will watch it more. In order to find out real rating of TV series it is necessary to broadcast them at other point of time instead of prime-time and see whether people watch them or not”.
Thus, eventually, the policy of broadcasting and target audience are decided by the TV channel.
1 The results of the expert poll carried out within the framework of “Study of the Ideologemes of the Information Space in the RA” research programme (grant program of the State Committee of Science of the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia).
2 http://www.1tv.am/userfiles/file/News/22_10_12/Gortsuneutyan veraberyal.doc, էջ 21։
3 Москаленко Л., «Рейтинги вместо смысла» // «Эксперт», # 38(820), 2012.
4 Ibid.
5 We considered and grouped by subject TV programmes broadcasted by 4 TV channels in prime-time (18:00-24:00) in November 2011. The monitoring was executed within the framework of “Study of the “Ideologemes of the Information Space in the RA” research programme
6 Москаленко Л., «Рейтинги вместо смысла» // «Эксперт», # 38(820), 2012.
7 Ibid, p. 20։
8 Ibid, p. 21
9 Ibid, p. 23
10 http://95.140.203.201/h1/pages/viewhistory/page/copyrightfilms
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