Raymond Williams Concept Of Flow In The 1970's

Upon analysis of a small fragment of the NBC schedule, 7:30-8:30PM on a Wednesday, the evolution of Raymond Williams’ classic concept of flow in the 1970s is evident. His traditional concept is no longer sufficient to explain modern network broadcasting, largely due to the complex circumstances of advertiser supported broadcast networks in the post-network era of fragmented audiences. This evolution maintains the basic structure of Williams’ concept of flow with the addition of clear demographic fragmentation into specific assumed audience segments within the schedule. Now NBC employs a flow that synthesizes its predecessors, a flow which emphasizes demographics and catering to audience tastes more than traditional flow, while still attempting
to attract a broader audience over the weekly schedule as a whole, not fully being able to commit to a narrowcast flow. Instead, continuing to abide by minute thematic forms of flow that lie within the texts which Williams and Thompson both recognize as essential to flow.
These thematic flows, contained with the advertisements and program episodes, function to frame the audiences positively, as adventurous, intelligent and discerning; a flattering audience projection, which functions to encourage viewers to frequent their network and buy the goods and services advertised.
To begin, Raymond Williams, defines flow as the planned sequencing of televisual texts “in which the true series is... the sequence transformed by the inclusion of another kind of sequence” (91), that the true process of flow is the “series of differently related units in which … the real internal organization is something other than the declared organization” (93), and that the purpose of flow is to “encourage the continual viewing of a channel” (94), particularly in in competitive environments. Thompson suggests that “television’s flow has shifted emphasis to brand identity and catering to audience taste” (281), while admitting that “the concept is still important as a structuring mechanism and branding strategy”
(283). NBC synthesizes these definitions of flow through an assumed demographic fragmentation that occurs between XXXII and XXXIII, which functions to attract two mutually exclusive segments of the broadcasting audience at different portions of the schedule through pseudo-narrowcasting. This strategy is likely employed due to the increasingly competitive televisual environment which has pulled valuable audiences toward cable and streaming services, resulting in NBC’s attempt to simultaneously retain a broad audience by accumulating various valuable narrow audiences, much like Thompson’s concept of flow. This is evident in the internal organization of this segment of NBC’s schedule created based on demographics and their assumed desires and self-proclaimed identities, in the case of Jeopardy, middle class persons fifty years old or older and, on the go 18-45 year olds, who potentially have children and are of a vaguer socioeconomic class. This results in the schedule that relies on a subtler, more minute flow between different demographically targeted segments of the network’s overall schedule which brings cohesion to a network that cannot rely solely on brand identity like cable networks. This is accomplished using themes and stories presented to and projected onto the audience over the course of several programs.
In this portion of the NBC schedule there are two major subtextual stories or thematic threads that create coherence and flow as it now functions. First, the imagery of the Jeopardy opening, in which the camera soars over CGI oceans, islands and San Franciscan monuments, evokes a theme of travel and adventure that is sustained throughout the entire portion of the schedule analyzed, which builds off this same theme created by the slow preceding it, Wheel of Fortune which gave out exotic trips as prizes. This sense of adventure establishes a slightly more ambiguous demographic which can include younger viewers who, for a half hour, live vicariously through the contestants, getting the same rush when answering questions as the contestants do. This sense of adventure is upheld in the advertisements as well. The Taltz ad (V) depicts happy consumers enjoying themselves in the great outdoors under blue skies, and the various car commercials depict their vehicles off-roading in the mountains of a wintry climate, (VI, XIX, XXIX, XXXI). This pandering to those who would consider themselves adventurous continues into the next program, Blindspot, and its advertisements. The plot of Blindspot provides a large portion of the feeling of adventure and travel for this portion of the schedule, with its characters’ attempt to take down a motorcycle gang, which employs scenes of motorcycles cruising back roads, in a very similar fashion as the car commercials used throughout this hour of programming (LIII). Employing these thematic threads, creates the illusion that the demographic targets are adventurous and, as a result will stick around throughout primetime to live vicariously through those ‘living’ the adventure onscreen and buy the products, specifically the cars, that promise to bring adventure to one’s life. In this way, the flow presented on NBC continues to abide by Williams’ concept of flow as a means to encourage audiences to watch throughout the entirely of primetime. Another major theme or story projected onto the audience through the programs and commercials throughout this segment of the schedule is that of the audience as exceptionally intelligent and discerning. Again, this is evident in the ways in which the viewers can live vicariously through the characters or contestants in the programs. On Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune before it, the viewers are encouraged to play along with the contestants. Viewers are pulled into the show through a sense of intimacy created by Trebek telling interesting, but superficial facts about the contestants (VIII) and addressing the viewers at home directly. In being pulled into the show, the viewers can ‘play along’ with the contestant, come up with their own answers and, even if they are wrong, upon hearing the answer, they can side with the correct contestant in saying, “Oh, I knew that”. This is further promoted by the variety of questions asked on the show. Though they can be quite difficult, there are some simple questions that causal television viewers, like those watching Jeopardy can answer, such as identifying Rachel Ray based on the premise of her television show. This theme of an intelligent audience is carried over in Blindspot, a dramatic mystery series, which relies on the viewers to keep up with the intricate plot and make continual guesses and connections as to what will happen next. For example, the show begins with a “Recently on Blindspot” sequence, which flows right into the actual opening sequence of the show, causing the viewers to attempt to make logical connections between the happenings of each introductory sequence. Furthermore, the dramatic mystery genre encourages an intimate and reciprocal relationship between the audience and the program. This theme is carried over into the advertisements as well. They suggest that the viewer is discerning and intelligent enough to know a good deal when they see one. This is particularly evident with the car commercials, which emphasize the bargain that one will get if they patronize their local dealership (VI, XXXI, XLIX, L), but also is visible in other miscellaneous commercials like those of Home Advisor (VII), Fieger’s Law (X), Eggland’s Best (XIII), HAP Health Insurance (XXX), H&R Block (XXVI), McDonald’s (XVIII, LI), Indeed.com (XLV), which all suppose that the viewer knows well enough to buy their ‘superior’ products. In short, this theme of framing the viewers and projecting onto them an intelligent, discerning identity functions to cajole them into patronizing the network and buying their products advertised, effectively “catering to audience taste” (281) as Thompson argues. Additionally, there exist traditional sources of flow, such as that which emerges from trailers for upcoming programs in the NBC schedule, either that same night or later in the week or season, which Williams explains are meant “to sustain the evening’s flow” (94).
Chicago P.D. (XXVII) Powerless (XLI) Saturday Night Live (LII), Today (XVLIII), and Local 4 News (XXVIII) are all included in this flow to promote viewing throughout the night, with Chicago P.D. and Local 4 News ads, and throughout the week with Powerless, Today, Saturday Night Live ads. A strategy of Williams’ traditional flow is also evident in the recap present at the end of Jeopardy and the beginning of Blindspot, an adventure-packed thirty second clip filling the viewer in on the most exciting moments of the season thus far. Williams’ explains that this strategy utilizes bizarre or violent opening scenes so that “the interest around must be strong enough to initiate the expectation of a sequence” (93) and, thus, the audience continues watching even after the program that they actively sought out is
over.
As can be seen, Williams’ traditional concept of flow no longer fully accounts for the scheduling decisions apparent in NBC Wednesday night 7:30-8:30 block, but rather it appears that the broadcast network has redefined its strategies for obtaining maximum viewership by fragmenting its schedule into segments of narrower assumed demographics, ultimately catering to the demographic desires of the advertisers, while still employing important thematic threads and trailers across multiple television texts that continues to encourage continual viewing throughout primetime by any member of the audience at any point who is intrigued by the entertainment or news presented to them. As a modern commercial broadcast network that relies entirely on advertiser based funding, NBC, as with other such channels, has synthesized the strategies employed by William’s and Thompson’s concepts of flow in order to function, by providing the advertisers that fund the channel with their desired demographics by essentially, broadcasting a variety of narrowcast scheduling segments.