Audiovisual Message Research Articles

Trope and Irony in The Simpsons' Overture

Using the initial sequence of The Simpsons as a case study, this article analyzes the role of television music in the construction of the medium's total audiovisual message. The one‐minute opening, a luscious symphonic overture complete with sound effects, introduces the five family characters plus the small‐town suburban culture that surrounds them. Inscribed within Hollywood's cinematographic language, the music is a powerful generic marker often projecting absurdity and irony. Notwithstanding the pantomimic effect, these comedic contradictions address the dysfunctional life of the Simpsons, defining the American Dream in ways distinct from other TV shows from the '50s, '60s, and '70s.

Mass-media y mensajes en la aldea global. Los géneros del ciberperiodismo

The information, the interpretation and the opinion resurge as exclusive arms of the press printed, from the point of view of the content, as opposed to the speed and update of the audio-visual and electronic informative message. From the formal point of view, the image is the great protagonist of the newspaper. The argumentative predominance of visual resources on textual language, sorts, the media of services, etc., define the printed press of the last years. The information in written press has been in the last decades overflowed by the instantaneity that offer the means that contribute rapidity of transmission. The written press must adopt new formulas to catch and to maintain the interest of its readers, formulas that are also translated in changes not only in the journalistic language but in the style and informative content of present newspapers. We are before the crossroads of the “digital revolution of the media”. For that reason, one requires a new tone and direction of language in the press able to respond to a new and complex way to conceive the life. For the renovation of the language in the media it would be necessary to solicit to mobilize his rigidity, to give him to flexibility and wealth adapting to the new times of the digital press. In our days it is necessary to redefine the paper of opinion and mass media and its complementariness in informative tasks, objective of this article that occupies to us.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: A STUDY IN AUDIENCE REACTION

ABSTRACT In the light of the Children's Television Workshop research‐guided productions of Sesame Street and The Electric Company, relatively inexpensive production styles such as camera in the back of a classroom and the simple studio set with the camera on the teacher have drawn harsh criticism. A theoretical basis for this criticism has been that the available audiovisual message capacity is not being used to its full potential, particularly the visual portion, in the simpler, teacher‐centred styles. Recent programming by TV College of the City Colleges of Chicago presented an opportunity to conduct an evaluation of two distinctly different instructional television production styles for adult open learning students. In this research a Miami‐Dade (Florida) Community College documentary film program which was part of the 30‐program series Man and Environment (ME) was compared with a program locally produced by TV College (TVC) which was broadcast back‐to‐back with the M&E program. This programing was p...