Approaches to Television Audiences

Television became a 20Th century phenomenon. Britain's entertainment went from socialising down the pub or dances to the living room. Television became a tool to inject a new wave of culture. It also reflected the social divide that existed at the work place, to home. The clash of the identity between the BBC and ITV generated a vast competition throughout the 1950's. BBC was the first channel to exist on television that led to a high demand until ITV was introduced. The BBC wanted to broadcast what they felt taught the audience and was known as high culture. This theme is still present after fifty years of broadcasting. Yet, ITV wanted to capture the same number of people watching the BBC and so broad-casted entertainment programmes that the BBC did not broadcast. This approach attracted the working classes and was known as low culture. The two channels resembled the divide between the working classes and middle classes. This can also be described as elitism versus popularism. Television is used as a device to transport the audience to unknown places which liberated the working classes especially. Television has become a social norm nowadays that we take for granted. It has been reproduced and commodified and not soley sold to watch programmes on any more with the improvement of technology. It has become an aesthetic institution within the household and used as a device to play games, surf the internet listen to music and watch hundreds of different channels from different countries.