A Level Media Studies: Audience Positioning in Breaking Bad, Black Mirror & The Night Manager

Discuss the different ways audiences are positioned by your three main texts [30]

Texts are constructed to the position the audience in a particular place. The relationship between the text and the audience is what will decide their responses. This essay will look at the different ways audiences are positioned by looking at Breaking Bad, Black Mirror and The Night Manager.

Breaking Bad is about Walter White, a chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with cancer after his 50th birthday. He turns to crime, specifically making crystal meth to help his family. George Gerbner would say that the illegal acts in Breaking Bad which are glorified may encourage the audience to act in a similar way in the real world as they would have shifted perceptions of reality – in this case, crime being less detrimental than it actually is. This said, the audience of Breaking Bad are likely to have been exposed to drug use and violence in previous episodes of past seasons so are less likely to be shocked by what they see and are desensitised. The audience are positioned on side with Walter which means that he is the perceived hero, although he carries out bad acts. This can be controversial as it entertains us with criminality which may lead to an oppositional reading (Hall) from psychographics that steer clear of these themes, like traditionalists. More loyal watchers of the show may have a preferred or negotiated reading of the text as they are more used to the themes explored by the show and can make a judgement based on their own experiences. Breaking Bad therefore positions the audience in a number ways whether it be through the narrative itself or the themes it presents.

Black Mirror: White Christmas includes the murder of two characters which is a demonstration of violence. An example is when the character on a date is force-fed and poisoned by his date. Cultivation theory would say that this will affect the audience’s attitudes and values as it has the potential to normalise and make the audience desensitised to an illegal act. However, the murder in the programme is not normalised as many of the characters who are bystanders respond with shock and upset. Viewers may also be affected by the Mean World Syndrome which is the belief the world is more dangerous than it is. This could be so because the murder of the character came as a shock to viewers and this element of surprise can impact upon a passive audience’s thinking. Black Mirror is made for a more niche audience who have an initial interest in technology and its impacts so the chances of audiences having an entirely oppositional reading is slim. It is a text that is more challenging because of how it tackles darker topics and breaks conventions to do so. Doing this positions audiences in a way that makes them expect difficult and controversial topics to be dealt with and covered. They can also be positioned within the text itself and an example of this is Black Mirror’s advertising techniques which brings the potential dangers of technology to a more personal level. Involving them in the narrative is likely to promote a preferred reading of the text as direct mode of address is used to specifically target them.

The Night Manager positions audiences in a similar way to how Breaking Bad does. The protagonist is a character who uses crime to achieve a ‘greater good’. The villain, Richard Roper, is a dangerous man who lives a luxury lifestyle which is funded by his crime. This suggests to passive audiences that crime is a good way of making money and having power. The Night Manager shows both sides of the character (his family side and his business side) which may lead to viewers sympathising with the character and thinking that breaking the law doesn’t make someone a bad person. When something bad happens, for example when Jonathan Pine is attacked, the characters prevent police interference which suggests the characters are above the law, changing our perceptions of the law typically being the ‘good’. This may influence a passive audience to do the same behaviour and have the same ideology being reflected in a real life setting. The Night Manager targets a 35-55 ABC1 audience meaning members of the audience are more than likely going to have a negotiated reading due to how much life experience they have already had; they will be able to understand the motivations for characters acting the way that they do.

Each of the three texts are encoded with messages throughout that the audience will understand in different ways according to their own situated culture. Because different audiences decode the messages in different ways, this causes them to have different opinions of a programme. Producers can only do so much to influence the way the text is read in regards to narrative, mode of address and exposure but reactions will ultimately depend upon the views of that particular individual.