Do shows have mass audiences anymore? (context for exam)

  • More diverse range of tv shows to choose from (not like in the past where there was only one channel- BBC1) .
  • Channel 4 started in 1982- up until recently, there weren't many channels now there are hundreds, on demand services, streaming sites etc.
  • Streaming uses the internet so it's not the same as broadcasting a show/ movie on the TV- narrowcasting.
  • Les Revenants- targeting British audiences as it has english translations on trailers, posters, promo etc.

  • Stuart Hall's Reception theory- we interact with media texts rather than watch and do nothing:
  • Negotiated reading- audience partly agree with producer's ideologies.
  • Preferred reading- audience fully agree with producer's ideologies.
  • Oppositional reading- audience disagree with producer's ideologies. 
Issues with this theory:
Preferred reading might not be clear to the audience. They want the audience to react to their ideologies.

Does Les Revenants have a preferred reading?
Audience may love or hate the show. They may also have an intellectual or emotional response as to why they love or hate the show. 

The show provides many polysemic meanings (multiple meanings).


Audience responses to the scene where Camille comes back to life and her mom finds her in the kitchen:
  • Subversion of a horror movie convention- the daughter coming back to life.
  • Non diegetic music creates tension, conventional of the horror genre.
  • Close up shots of the the moms face so audience can see how shocked she is- this implies that Camille just came back from the dead even though there was no real indication in the show that she died. (close up shot may make some of the audience feel uncomfortable).
  • Low key lighting- to set a dark mood, relating to the events taking place.
  • Mid-/close shots of Camille's features (her hair, hands, coat) when her mom first sees her- to build tension- conventional of a mystery genre.
  • Enjoyment at having genre conventions (like the zombie genre) subverted- it is a zombie show but does't have stereotypical conventions of the genre (like shows like the walking dead etc).
  • Nothing like the trailer.
  • Mother's evasive performance- why doesn't she hug her "dead" daughter- just stares at her daughter, she doesn't try to find out anything that happened to Camille.
  • Enjoyment at Claire's (the mother) atypical response- fully flushed out character, subverting character archetypes. 
  • Crane/ tracking shot- conventional shots used in a typical horror movie (conventional). An intertextual reference to the horror movie Sinister, when he's walking up the stairs. 
  • Frustration at the use of montage- lack of definitive action and fast paced editing (some people might find it boring as nothing much is going on).
  • Foreshadowed Camille coming home as her mom was in her bedroom looking at pictures of Camille before she appeared (has symbolic reference to her coming back to life)- some might think of it as cliche that her daughter comes home as she's looking at her pictures.  
  • How did Camille survived? (Hermeneutic code). Her arrival spurs a lot of unanswered questions. 
  • Pleasure at Camille's character and her assertive gobby nature. 
  • Middle aged heterosexual men might find Claire attractive.

Sex scene at the end:
  • French word for orgasm "le petite mort"- " the little death". Has explicit relationship to Lena loosing her virginity and Camille dying at the same time. 
  • Conventions of supernatural genre- Camille has a bond to her sister- she feels with Lena feels.
  • Mise-en-scene of Lena's boyfriend's clothes 


















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