Critical

This article explores the how mass media influence the views of the public, that is, the public opinion. Of course, Jürgen Habermas' idea of the Bourgeois Public Sphere and Chomsky's analysis and criticism of the mass media in today's context are closely tied to this item and further reading is recommended. Many social critics are concerned with how public opinion and, perhaps more importantly, public consensus is formed. In Post-War U.S., C. Wright Mills investigates the interactions of the elites and the formation of stereotypes among other relevant issues.

BBM / Nielsen is yet to issue the weekly report for the week of December 24-30. Regardless, taking into consideration the fact that CBC's mid-season premieres will probably not make it to the weekly top-ten television ratings chart, it is worth mentioning them today. In an attempt to bring new life to its screen, the public broadcaster introduced four new fictions to its prime-time schedule throughout this week. Fortunately for the Canadian television industry, all of them had a relatively successful beginning, as far as mass appeal is concerned. But, were they successful in terms of storytelling and originality? We watched them and the results are in.

The Border (Mondays, 9pm)

The WGA strike is, indeed, an inconvenience for the major television networks down South. Production of most major dramas has been halted as a result of the now two-month old dispute. Although, we can all agree that we would like to see this problem resolved and prevent the potential layoffs that could result from the strike, as Canadians we can also–perhaps somewhat naïvely–hope for Canadian networks to see this as an opportunity to develop homegrown dramas. To their defense, even if they wanted to take advantage of the situation, two months is admittedly too little time to create a drama and have it ready to air next week.

In Part 1, you were introduced to the vocabulary used in measuring television audiences and to the application of statistics as a relatively reliable way of providing quantitative and qualitative information about the viewers. BBM and Nielsen Media Research combine their efforts to measure audiences in Canada. The second part of this series explores the ways used to obtain information, an introduction to the "sweeps" and the exploration of Joost as a solution to many sources of inaccuracies.

This is the introductory part to the processes involved in measuring television audience. Every week E. G. Media Blog reports on the top ten television programs in Canada based on average minute audience estimates generated by BBM Nielsen Media Research. Although, for practical reasons, I call them ratings, this is not exactly what they truly are. A rating in TV measurement is a statistical estimate of the size of a television program's audience relative to what is known as the total universe, expressed as a percentage. The weekly data presented here on a weekly basis measures the average audience of a program during each broadcast minute.

The links between this article and communication studies originate from the Marxist social and public analysis. The issues analysed are, in my opinion, only indirectly related to media studies. Althusser's intention is to expand on Marx's idea of the reproduction of social formations. It is the basis of any capitalist society to reproduce the society's labour capacity so as to keep it alive in future generations. This reproduction works through the ideology that is prevalent in a certain social formation. It is this concept of ideology that relates Althusser's inquiry to communication and media studies. If ideology is the basis of any society, it will certainly have an impact on the type of media and its contents. This article is eye-opening but seriously pessimistic. It points out the fact that the type of media an individual likes to consume is not a matter of personal choice, but rather the result of the ideological reproduction process.

When the arrival of the low television season is evident and the audience numbers reach their annual minimum, the networks' pockets are indeed one of the only things that freeze. Not much else freezes this time of the year. Along with the executives' pockets are my friends and family living in Buenos Aires, who, last Monday, witnessed the first snowfall in the Argentinian capital city in over eighty years. However, the cold pockets are not such a rare event.

Here's the follow up of the first critical article I posted last month. This one looks at the semiotics behind advertising and what Roland Barthes calls "myths." Put in simple terms, a myth is, for Barthes, a second-level semiology. A semiotic analysis involves the analysis of the relationship between the signifier (or "thing," as Williamson puts it) and the signified (or social "idea") as they come together to form a sign that is used in all acts of communication. Barthes makes a point about the arbitrary relationship among these communicative elements.