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Degree

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Popular Culture, 2012.

Abstract

In the fragmented post-network era of television, networks are looking for any advantage in attracting audiences. One way networks try to draw attention is through branding. Branding helps networks stand out among the hundreds of other choices, but can also link all of a network's programming under one carefully-crafted theme. When viewers access a network's content from numerous devices, it is crucial that each experience evokes similar images, styles and themes. It is my assertion that cable giant USA Network has succeeded with its branding campaign like no other contemporary television network. By combining a programming formula of blue skies, cool cases and pretty faces with thematically-connected branding under the “Characters Welcome” label, USA Network and its structurally formulaic programs are activated into a new genre of television. This activation from formula into genre is accomplished narratively, thematically and aesthetically within the programs themselves, but is primarily driven by the commodification of those narratives, themes and aesthetics through an overarching branding campaign (television spots, on-screen chyrons, print ads, web sites, Tweets, various other intertextual directives) that promises diverting, but not mindless, fare. The brand emphasizes escapism and inclusivity through sunshine-drenched imagery and a laid-back, summertime ideology. Using Jason Mittell suggestion television genres exist as “cultural categories” created through discourse, this thesis discusses how USA Network exists as a generic category shaped by branding and how critics and audiences embrace and acknowledge that generic category.

Subject Headings

Aesthetics; African Studies; American Studies; Art Criticism; Cinematography; Communication; Film Studies; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications

Keywords

Popular Culture; Television; USA Network; Contemporary Television; Branding; Media Industries; Advertising; Genre; Characters Welcome, USA Network Characters; Television Studies; Promotions; Television Promotions; Burn Notice; Psych

Committee / Advisors

Dr. Jeff Brown (Committee Chair)
Dr. Kristen Rudisill (Committee Member)
Dr. Marilyn Motz (Committee Member)

Pages

194p.

Document number: bgsu1332972861
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1332972861

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