Television Liveness in Ghoastwatch - Essay Example

TELEVISION LIVENESS IN ‘GHOSTWATCH’ Introduction This paper explores the television show Ghostwatch in relation to broadcasting’s ideology of liveness and its centrality to television. This will be approached by clarifying the concept by highlighting common analytical perspectives in relation to television shows like Ghostwatch. The media characteristics of Ghostwatch will be scrutinized and analysed according to the concept of television liveness. Television has been an important household technology in which audiences may watch various forms of shows, ranging from news and current affairs to entertainment, drama, comedy, and documentary shows. It has a capacity to broadcast a variety of program genres and can adapt to varying domestic and cultural contexts. It likewise shares with radio the capacity to broadcast events to mass audiences as promptly as they happen. This capacity of the television is viewed as characteristic of liveness (Davis, 2007). As society transforms and continuously becomes a witness to various historical and significant national and world events, the television has continued to develop with regard to its evolution from technological hardware transition to digital broadcasting and satellite services. The technological developments in television programming account for the creation of techno-material quality of television image of which liveness is a feature (Bourdon, 2004). This is without due regard to whether the television show was edited prior to the airing or is strictly ‘live.’ The content of television images is also influential to the concept of liveness, in which the television images are considered an audiovisual materiality created by technological processes (Davies, 2007). The Liveness of Television Images The technical and material quality of television image comprises its quality of liveness, indicating that liveness is a feature of all television images, regardless of whether the show is recorded and/or edited and strictly live (Davis, 2007). The concept of television liveness remains central to an understanding of television in general, despite a decline in the live broadcasting in the recent years (Bourdon, 2000). It is the viewer’s belief in live broadcasting which constitutes liveness, not merely an actual live performance of a show. This belief is influenced by the social context, the tele-visual text, and the audiences’ social characteristics alongside the temporal sequencing of television viewing. Liveness is not limited to the here and now of a television show, but is rather inclusive of edited shows such as non-fiction and non-live, as well as fictions such as films which have minimum liveness; and continuity such as in game shows in which it has no certainty (Allen and Hill, 2004). By this, it may be inferred that liveness is present in all television shows; what makes the difference however is whether such is minimum or maximum, which depends on the audiences’ liveness perception of a particular show. The Liveness in Ghostwatch Ghostwatch was a controversial 90-minute horror-documentary television movie produced by the BBC and written by Stephen Volk which was broadcasted in 1992 as a Halloween presentation. The television movie involved an on-air investigation by reporters of a house in Greater London where poltergeist activities were believed to be occurring. A malevolent ghost called Pipes, who was nicknamed as such because of its constant habit of knocking down pipes, was discovered through revealing footages and interviews with neighbors and the family living in the house. The manifestations of the television show became more bold and terrifying as it began depicting the spirit of Mother Seddons which troubled Pipes psychologically during his lifetime. The poltergeist activity became more and more uncontrollable, which even assailed the BBC studio with its possession of the show’s host (Ghostwatch, accessed 12 November 2008). Ghostwatch is considered a fiction and not at all a strictly live show like what it merely wanted to suggest to its viewers. The content of television images in the show is associated with liveness since television images per se are considered a specific kind of surface in which various types of scenes and representations are presented. The investigation by a paranormal investigator and a TV reporter was only fictional, setting the audience into gradually discovering more elements of mystery each week, thereby making them be glued to the boob tube, which is any television show’s objective for their audiences. However, due to the usage of actual BBC personalities, the show’s presentation of paranormal activities became convincing. This indicates how scenes of television images like what were realistically pictured in Ghostwatch exploited and maximised the surface potential of liveness. It only supports the notion that the more live the audiences perceive a television show, the more that liveness surface is potentially maximised. This maximized liveness is triggered by the usage of several examples of phenomena related to real life paranormal research so that a realistic edge is maintained in the show. Apparitions were shown which were not real but were manipulated by image-producing technological equipments. Shaking video footages intentionally made as such and actual investigations by a popular TV reporter of the apparition scenes all the more enhanced the realistic portrayal of the show, thereby increasing its surface of liveness. In this sense, the scenes of television images are able to exploit or maximize the surface potential of liveness (Davies, 2007). Minimum liveness would have occurred in Ghostwatch had it been depicted as a fiction, which it indeed was. However, it was apparent that the production cast of the show wanted Ghostwatch to appear not only realistically real, but also real in the very essence of the word. Thus, an understanding of liveness is broader than the technology’s capacity to air real events in real time, as previously mentioned. This is shown in the fact that despite having shown the names of actors and actresses who constitute the show, the audience’s perception of maximum liveness was still retained. The technical aspect of the show includes recording the scenes in Studio TC6 of the BBC Television Centre in London, shooting on location the scenes in the house and the street in a period of 5-6 weeks prior to recording the studio scenes. Audience participation was also encouraged, in which a phone number was flashed on the screen so that viewers can call in and share their own experiences of ghostly phenomena (Movie Review, accessed 12 November 2008). Callers were first directed to a voice prompt explaining them that what they were about to enter was merely fictional, which minimizes the level of the show’s liveness. However, despite this fact, in which the show cannot truly suggest real time filming and real life occurrence, the minimized level of liveness is however compensated by the actual phone calls and live sharing of ghostly experiences. This is suggestive of the increased audience perception of how real the show is being depicted, which thus means how maximized its level of liveness is. The people behind the show may be termed successful in their pursuit to present a realistic paranormal television show in which it may be noted that they too were familiar with the idea of liveness which must be in its maximum so that audiences will support it. It is because the more the audiences perceive a particular television show as live, the more that they will tend to patronize and watch it. Ghostwatch’s increased liveness made it a subject of mystery and curiosity by the audience. This outcome might not have been the same had it been maintained as a mystery fiction aired regularly. The element of liveness is so significant that we can see people getting all frenzied with watching a live performance rather than watching the same artist perform the same sets of songs on television. People would prefer to watch a live evening show rather than watch a rerun despite seeing it the first time. These examples give out the idea of how important perception of liveness is in that the more strictly live a show is, the more audiences will scurry and watch it. The same notion is present in Ghostwatch. However, since television shows also maintain a certain degree of accountability to its audiences, Ghostwatch needed to inform the audiences the truth that what they were presenting was a product of mere fiction. In order to uplift the show’s level of liveness, the show incorporated the idea of flashing a telephone number on the screen so that viewers may discuss their own personal experience of a ghostly story. Conclusion Television liveness constitutes technical and material quality but is not limited to strictly live imaging. Rather, it is inclusive of television shows that are either recorded or edited and fictional. The viewers in Ghostwatch believed in live broadcasting of the show since this trail was what the show wanted to indicate in the first place. The technical works such as accentuating images as in apparitions and other technical effects employed in the taping of the show enhanced this audience perception of liveness. Audiences also tended to be condescending of the television shows that present more liveness than those that do not, indicating the production staff’s pursuit to present Ghostwatch as a reality-based documentary television movie rather than a fiction which it really was. This was how Ghostwatch was treated in relation to broadcasting’s ideology of liveness and its centrality to television. References Bourdon, J. (2000) Live television is still alive: on television as an unfulfilled promise. Media, Culture, and Society. Vol. 22, No. 5. Allen, R. C. and Hill, A. (eds) (2004) The television studies reader. Routledge. Davis, W. (2007) Television’s liveness: a lesson from the 1920s. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture. Vol. 4, No. 2. Ghostwatch. Accessed 12 November 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch Movie Review. Accessed 12 November 2008 from http://www.spout.com/films/Ghostwatch/216824/default.aspx Read More