What sets us apart from other species is our ability to use and shape reason and emotion in the way we think is suitable for our merits. The different forms of media use this idea to influence the viewers. More specifically, television is a mass media that appeals to a wide range of viewers who use it for various reasons but get the same outcome: influence. The combination of imagination and reality produced by television as a storyteller shapes the aspects of who we are as individuals within society and as citizens within a nation. To do this, the tv uses a number of media, some of which are: soap operas and melodramas, reality shows, and finally documentaries. These media present us with material that changes our habits, attitudes and even sometimes ideas about an event, a design, a movement or even a straightforward everyday activity.
Television as a media changes us as individuals within a society. We start to look at events differently because a news influences us we saw last night, or we begin to understand science and nature much better because we saw a documentary about earth the other day, or we gain habits like ‘couch potato’ because we want to know whether Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie really have separated. In his article of Las Meninas, Michel Focult talks about representation and explains how representation can be used as a power tool in shaping the perspective of the viewer and causing the eye to focus on what is wanted to be represented rather than what is.
He says,
From the eyes of the painter to what he is observing there runs a compelling line that we, the onlookers, have no power evading: it runs through the real picture and emerges from its surface to join the place from which we see the painter observing us; this dotted line reaches us ineluctably and links us to the representation of the picture. (4)
Focult here makes the point that what we see is not the reality, but what the painter sees and chooses to tell us- maybe to entertain us, perhaps to empower us with his ideas, or maybe to change a perspective we already have into a better or worse one. This we would not know, but the truth is that the painter uses his medium to influence us. This technique applies to almost all media, more specifically television. Producers use the tv as a storyteller medium in sending a message, portraying an event, shaping perspectives and entertaining; hence changing our attitude towards an event or allowing us to gain habits that we usually would not have.
An example would be the reality shows; these use materials such as hosts interviewing celebrities to entertain the audience but also to hook them on TV almost every night to gain ratings. If you are a person who regularly does not watch reality shows, you would not be interested. To achieve this interest, the producers have to come up with a sparkle that would grab your attention and change your habit of reading a book or going out at that hour of that day into watching the reality show. This is what Focult means by power and influence of television as a storyteller media. The story on the reality television is told in such a way that the narrative becomes exciting and you are hooked and have to know whether Emma Watson will be doing a new movie or not. Helen Wood and Beverley Skeggs talk about the reality shows, and the representation issue in their book where they claim that “Reality Television evokes rather than represents” (Skeggs, Wood, 25) and “Indeterminacy and unpredictability are central to the appeal of reality television, regardless of the format.” (Skeggs, Wood, 27) Skeggs and Wood also try to point out that reality television, just like other media, use television to evoke the viewer’s so that they would watch the next episode to clarify their suspense on what will happen. The self-becomes the object of the media to show what is maybe proper, wrong or give rating-giver news based on the performances of the ordinary people. This also applies to soap operas and even the documentaries and news. The soap operas, especially the Turkish ones, have an ingredient within them, which is the appealing narrative that makes the viewers interested enough to sit and watch a two and a half hour long episode- even though he/she knows that there are things to be done. Tania Modleski talks about the hermeneutic code in her article The Search for Tomorrow in Today’s Soap Operas; she says: “In soap opera, the hermeneutic code predominates. ‘Will Bill find out that his wife’s sister’s baby is his by artificial insemination?” and “It is not that successful soap opera do not end, it is also that they cannot end.” (Modleski, 1) She claims that the structuring of the soap opera and the subverting of the media as a story hook the audience onto the screen where they find the story on television very appealing because of various reasons. Modleski, throughout her article, talks about the structure and ramifications of the soap operas and how, like stated in this paper, those soap operas are used to change people in what they feel and think. She says, “For it is crucial to recognize that soap operas always real anxieties, satisfies real needs and desire, even while it may distort them” (Modleski, 38) The narrative is made appealing by making the story similar the lives of the viewers, or by producing a sympathetic character, or by using a set that causes the viewers to reminiscence their past. The news delivers events in a way that you are either pleased about an event or you are devastated with the bombing, even though you will forget about this the next day when you dive into your daily routine. The Discovery Channel gives a story about the familial of lions and how they reproduce for the chain of life; from which you learn scientific fact- even though you may well get them from books and any other media.
Nevertheless, television uses this opportunity to become the storyteller and hook you on the screen to give you knowledge, of which by doing so it manages to provide you with information. The changes that we go as individuals within the society are thus closely related to many things, one of which is the television and its influence as a storyteller media. The tools that the TV uses as a media shapes the very attitudes we have towards incidents and movements, the habits that we gain and change in our everyday lives, and the activities that we do daily.
Another aspect of television as a storyteller media is the shaping of individuals as citizens within a nation. The TV is almost a perfect tool to use in reaching people in issues about politics and nationalism. The news is the first step; another step is the reality shows and even the soap operas that give out specific messages within their narratives. Lisa Rofel, in her article titled Televisual Love and Melodramatic Politics in Contemporary China, talks about television shaping the individuals regarding nationness. She gives the example of the TV drama series Yearnings;
Specifically, Yearnings is trafficking in icons of national identity…Speaking bitterness is a genre that the Communist party honed and popularized in the early days of revolutionary organizing… Expressing bitterness entails encouraging oppressed groups to tell stories of the ‘bitterness’ they have ‘eaten’ under the previous system…These life stories were then used to move others to action in building the new nation through the adoption of a class analysis that led to the redistribution of land. Thus, the narrative was an essential part of the revolutionary Praxis through which the party shaped socialist subjects and then linked them to the project of building the nation.” (Rofel, 707)
These lines demonstrate how politics is involved in the storytelling of television and how these stories are told through a medium to raise awareness of national identity and the building of a nation. By the use of soap operas, television becomes a storyteller that promotes the national identity and causes the people to change their views on what is the important thing about being a citizen, a nation, etc. The opening episode of Yearnings relates to the sufferings of the intellectuals during the Cultural Revolutions. The stories of the characters and the pains they go through caused the community to look into themselves concerning gender roles and responsibilities. The treatment of intellectuals and women and the difficult choices that women were made to do appealed to the viewers and memories and reinvigorated the sense of nationalism within the Chinese society. Rofel goes on to say, “The story of Yearnings became the story of these intellectuals… It constituted them as subjects who need to remember why they should support the post-Mao socialist nation-state by transferring narrative authority to them as they actively watched the drama; that is, the ability and desire to speak bitterness…” (Rofel, 709) Rofel’s lines demonstrate the effect of television as a storyteller on the individuals as citizens of a nation. Through the storytelling of the sufferings of a historical event, the sense of nationness is reminded, strengthened and thus kept alive.
Another example of a soap opera would be the long-running TV series in TRT titled Diriliş: Ertuğrul, where the era before the Ottoman Empire, the Selçuklu era, is depicted with such greatness and pride that one who watches the series is hooked and feels, to exaggerate, the very proud and ambitious blood running through his/her veins. The storytelling part is so great that we do not focus on the production, but rather wonder what will happen in the next episode between Ertuğrul Ghazi and Halime Hatun or if Ertuğrul will forgive and not behead the criminal. The story, which is not a new story but a historical one, is told in an effective way that the television transforms into a huge storyteller who performs in front of the audience and receives enormous clapping’s at the end. After such a performance, the viewers have the sense of belonging to a nation that has a great and glorious history. The old Turkish series Hatırla Sevgili is also a good example in reminding people of the coup of 1960 and the beheading of the Turkish Prime minister Adnan Menderes. This series, whatever the producer’s intentions were, raised awareness of the sufferings of the people back then, caused the viewers to reminiscence the memories and also to ‘watch out’ for any similar event. It is through the storytelling of these television soap operas that the sense of citizenship and nationness increased within society.
One final tool that is used by television as a storyteller to shape individuals into nationness is the reality shows. Although not as much as soap operas, the reality shows also play a part in directing people towards being a nation, and doing what’s right for the nation. An example is the famous Jimmy Kimmel Live! reality show, where the host Jimmy Kimmel calls on the President of the United States Barack Obama to appear as a guest. During the show, along with personal questions, Kimmel also asks the president issues related to politics and more specifically, this year, about the elections. To the former, the President does his best to answer, the latter, he encourages the people to vote. This encouragement raises awareness on the importance of voting and thus on the importance of being a nation and doing the responsibilities of a citizen as an individual. In this way, the reality show is used as a medium of storytelling where the idea of nationness is promoted. The television then becomes a tool through which the story on the importance of voting is forwarded to the people.
As a conclusion, story-telling is a part of the human culture that causes the harmonizing of reality and imagination. It is a method that is used in all areas, not just literature, to send a message, relate an event, to educate or entertain. Media as a storyteller is not a new form; however, the methods used by the media as a storyteller to change the attitude and habits of people, whether on purpose or not, is a method that has develops in recent years. What is appealing to the viewers is what is shown as part of their lives. What we identify with and can change into is what hooks us on TV and causes the storytelling media to rise. This is the reason why television has become a mass cultural media- because it appeals to all viewers in different ways with the same basic structure. In this way, TV is transformed from a technological device into a folklore element known as a bard, where the stories mediated to the viewer change and even shape the viewer’s individuality in terms of individualism within society and citizens within a nation, so that the individual transforms into a new individual with different thoughts and emotions- whether positive or negative. In this sense, as modern-day viewers of television, we should be aware of what we watch and how it is given to us.
Bibliography
Ang, I. (1991). “(Not) Knowing the Television Audience” (1-14). London and New
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Foucault, M. (2005). “Las Meninas” (3-18). The Order of Things: An Archeology of
the Human Sciences. London: Routledge.
Modleski, T. (1979). “The Search for Tomorrow in Today’s Soap Operas” Film
Quarterly 33:1 (1979): 12–21
Rofel, L. B. (1994). “Yearnings: Televisual Love and Melodramatic Politics in
Contemporary China”. American Ethnologist, 21(4), 700–722.
Skeggs, B. and Wood, H. (2012). “Reality Television: from Representation toIntervention” Reacting to Reality Television pp. 21-47. Oxon, New York: Routledge.