Ten Audience Analysis Exercises - EFL Classroom 2.0

ating for the programs that you watched and consider whether the ratings were
accurately applied. Your paper should pay attention to the details that are included
in the definitions of the different ranks on the rating scale. Once you've analyzed
the application of the ratings to your show and indicated whether the application
was appropriate, you should go on to consider whether the scale itself is adequate.
7. Same Subject, Different Shows. Choose television programs that consider the
same subject or the same issue, but from different perspectives. For instance, if
you wanted to think about lawyers and legal issues, you might choose Ally
McBeal, The Practice, reruns of LA Law, and Judge Mills Lane. While these
shows all consider similar issues and all focus on lawyers, they go about it in
different ways and with different attitudes. You could choose different issues of
course--shows on medicine and doctors, shows on police, and so on. For your
paper, compare the ways that the issues are dealt with--which things remain
unchanged regardless of the show you're considering, and which things change?
In addition to thinking about the similarities and differences, be sure to consider
the reasons for the changes.
8. Time Capsule. Imagine that the programs that you've watched are all that have
survived to tell future generations about our life and times. Imagine that a video
recording of these programs has been discovered 500 years from now.
Miraculously, the discoverers have found a way to watch the programs. What
would they think of us and our world? Take on the role of one of the discoverers,
and write a report to your home office explaining what you've learned about your
ancestors based on the programs. Be sure that your report draws clear connections
between the details of the program and the conclusions about your ancestors.
9. Role of Television. Edward R. Murrow said, "Television in the main is being
used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us." In light of Murrow's quotation,
what role would you say that the programs that you're examining play? Do they
distract? If so, from what, and how? Or do they delude? Who are they deluding?
What methods do they use? If they amuse, whom do they amuse, and what
techniques do they use? If they're insulating us, what are they insulating us from,
and how do they go about it? Do they fill several of those roles? Or do you seem
them as filling roles that Murrow has not allowed for? In your paper, explain the
roles that your television programs fill, providing examples and explanations from
the shows that support your analysis.