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Abstract Header

Genre Welcome?: Formula, Genre and Branding in USA Network's Programming and Promotional Content

Barker, Cory Andrew
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1332972861

Abstract Details

2012, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Popular Culture.
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.
Dr. Jeff Brown (Committee Chair)
Dr. Kristen Rudisill (Committee Member)
Dr. Marilyn Motz (Committee Member)
194 p.
Aesthetics; African Studies; American Studies; Art Criticism; Cinematography; Communication; Film Studies; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications
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

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Barker, C. A. (2012). Genre Welcome?: Formula, Genre and Branding in USA Network's Programming and Promotional Content [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1332972861

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Barker, Cory. Genre Welcome?: Formula, Genre and Branding in USA Network's Programming and Promotional Content. 2012. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1332972861.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Barker, Cory. "Genre Welcome?: Formula, Genre and Branding in USA Network's Programming and Promotional Content." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1332972861

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1332972861
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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.