“Television Culture”

In chapter nine “Television Culture”, by John Fiske, Fiske focuses on how television makes meanings that serve the dominant interest in society, and how it circulates those meanings between varieties of social groups that establish its audiences.  Fiske breaks it down into several sections, the first is the Codes of television which is used to generate and circulate meanings in and for a specific culture. These codes can often times be placed within dialogue in order to give a more “real life” feel to the audience. The codes are broken down into three sections, level one is “reality” which refers to appearance, dress, makeup sound, gesture, and expression. Level 2 “Representation” which refers to the camera lighting editing music, etc. which helps shapes representations. Level 3 “Ideology” is organized so that the act is socially acceptable. All of the tools used serve an important purpose, such as camera work, which is used to give a perfect and specific scene so that the viewer can completely understand what is going on. Editing has to do with how much time different characters are given. Music links scenes, and helps the viewer to identify certain characters or plots. We see this a lot when a movie shows a villain, the music has a deep and dark sound, so the viewer knows this particular characters role in the act. Casting is important because the characters represent coding’s of ideology. Setting and costume are seen as codes which correlate with ideological codes of class, heroism, villainy, morality, and attractiveness. Make up, helps to merge the codes by giving a detailed understanding of specific characters. The dialogue correlates with the action. Dialogue is used to affect the viewer’s sympathy, while the action pursues it. All of these tools are used as codes which brings the viewer a deeper understanding to the plot.  We see how all of these codes are used in order make sense of the program to the viewers by making them feel a resemblance with their own lifestyle, it is legitimizing the dominant ideology.