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- Convenors:
-
Regina F. Bendix
(Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
Arzu Ozturkmen (Bogazici University)
- Discussant:
-
Brigitte Frizzoni
- Stream:
- Narrative
- Location:
- A226
Short Abstract:
Television production and viewing are a rich ground for ethnography. The location of the creative imagination, industries devoted to tv production, and series' impact on watchers all ask for comparative, ethnographic attention.
Long Abstract:
Television has joined other media in circulating stories both fictional and (believed to be) true. In watching them, viewers absorb such narratives, interact or get obsessed with them, are entertained and/or disturbed. The worlds of television production and viewing as well as the interweaving of critical discourses about them are a rich ground for ethnographic work of the present. The differential location of the creative imagination, both in its production and its reception asks for attention from a variety of ethnographic angles and theoretical stances and warrants a comparative perspective. There are prime television production countries; there are others that import from countries with different histories and politics and thus participate in realities and visions generated elsewhere. We invite papers on the occupational cultures of soap and series writers, directors, actors, stage hands, and assistants: the uncertainties of employment in this creative industry stand in stark contrast to the allure of being involved in crafting e/affective narrative universes. We are equally interested in communities of watchers sharing in the broadcast imaginaries, engaging with stories, characters, actors, show runners in daily life. The hold of stories on screen has increased exponentially with the streaming of television via digital screens, as has the interweaving with the capital that supports and advertises through these productions. The plethora and simultaneity of all these stories - from action to romance, manor house to starship - and their hold on lived realities will be reflected through the perspectives brought together in the panel.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Arzu Ozturkmen (Bogazici University)
Paper short abstract:
Based on empirical data on screen writing, musical narrative and film editing, this study explores how the dizi, Turkish television series, emerged in the past decade as an important genre of popular culture in the Eastern Mediterranean in a fierce market competing with other international genres.
Paper long abstract:
This study explores how the dizi genre emerged within Turkish television history, and how it reached the final form which is now exportable to other countries. When compared with the production and consumption patterns of the soap, telenovela or the newly emerging contents and formats of Asian television, dizi as a genre has been praised and despised in the global market from different angles. This reseach consists of in-depth interviews conducted since 2011 with producers, screenwriters, directors, art directors, directors of photography, editors, musicians, actors, managers and location scouts. While the narratives of these interviews help greatly to observe the collective creative processes leading to the production of the dizi, the printed and social media display how its reception transcend national boundaries today.
This study therefore also tries to situate the Turkish dizi sector within the general framework of the global television events such as MIPTV, MIPCOM, AFM or the more local ones like the Discop or ITVF. Although the international reception has been an important dimension taken more into account in recent years, what makes up the genre of dizi continue to be primarily 'local' where the production and reception processes continually negotiate between the creative input and the mercantile profit.
Nathalie Knöhr (Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde (ISGV))
Paper short abstract:
Series writing is a multiemotional endeavor that requires the management of personal sensitivities and the ability to suffer, as well as the craft of affecting the audiences. Based in cultural anthropology, this paper examines the share of emotional labor in present-day German TV series production.
Paper long abstract:
Series writers in present day television industries are confronted with emotions in a variety of ways during the collaborative production of a TV series. Uncertainty and risks that result from an ever growing level of (inter-) national competition form further emotional catalysts during the acquisition of contracts, and the developing and writing of plots, story arcs, character traits and dialogues. Passion for storytelling, as well as the capacity for suffering, is considered a necessary qualification. Nevertheless, the hierarchical and sometimes highly divided production process requires a controlled and strategic expression of sensitivities. The craft of serial storytelling furthermore involves the masterful emotional manipulation of audiences through narratives.
The paper asks which emotional highs and lows series writers experience in the creative process of serial storytelling. How are emotions—both in negotiation with other "creatives" and in and through serial narratives—managed? What does the share of "emotional labor" as sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild describes it for flight attendants look like in present-day TV series production in Germany?
Nathalie Knöhr (M.A.) is a research assistant in the project "Writing Series: The Occupational Culture of Present-Day German Televised Entertainment" that is part of the interdisciplinary Research Unit "Popular Seriality—Aesthetics and Practice." Based on the methods and theories of cultural anthropology, the project seeks to understand the occupational culture of German TV series production from an insider perspective through biographical interviews, participant observation as well as the analysis of teaching materials, ego-documents and fictional sources.
Christine Hämmerling (University of Zurich)
Paper short abstract:
On- and offline commentary on ‘realism’ in the popular German/Austrian/Swiss police procedural TATORT provides an insight into its viewer’s perspectives – on watching television, on society’s problems, and on recipients responsibilities in politics.
Paper long abstract:
In my thesis on the long-running German/Austrian/Swiss crime television series TATORT, I focused on its viewers and the criteria which become important by commenting on it - while watching, online, or in the time between episodes.
One of the most important criteria for the viewers of the series (which often addresses current issues in society) is realism. What my interviewees call 'realism' is not only the realistic visualization of police work. From their point of view a story looks real as soon as complex social, political or personal problems are displayed: We see dysfunctional families, corruption, poverty, and child pornography. The murder case of each episode is solved, but structural problems are shown as being persistent. Thus its viewers consider TATORT episodes better and more 'realistic' than other TV series that tend to happy endings.
By seeing the social world in such a 'realistic' way in a fictional story, comparisons to watching news arise. Recipients discuss the political potential of the series to 'make a difference'. Some viewers even argue that watching the series makes people politically active. Based on interviews with TATORT viewers, analysis of online fora, and my field notes on watching viewers watch and discuss the police procedural I argue that group dynamics, past political engagements, viewers thoughts on the political power of media, and personal experiences with the issues presented in the series strongly influence TATORT viewers in taking a stand in this debate.