Orientations of entertainment media workers

Abstract

Although entertaining media content is considered to be highly influential on values and norms shared by the recipients, little is known about the orientation and self-perceptions of entertainment media workers conveying these values and norms. This article offers an overview of existing research on TV entertainment workers and concludes that the common stereotype of a primarily commercial orientation cannot be sustained across the board. To underpin this argument results from two exploratory studies with producers and commissioners in five European countries are presented. Besides a market orientation we can also identify a creative, a common welfare and a professional orientation. Combined with information on the work environment and the demographics of the respondents, the orientations are used to develop a typology of producers and commissioners. It turns out that the common stereotype of a solely commercial mindset only applies for the self-perception of non-fiction producers at commercial broadcasters and program buyers, while all other types seem to have a corrective in other orientations.