Interventions in the field

Theoretical and methodological elements from three overlapping, but certainly not distinct, fields influence this dissertation project: cultural studies, media industry studies, and production studies. My theoretical approach to television acknowledges it is simultaneously an object made up of industrial, economic, cultural, and historical processes as well as complex interrelationships between media workers, audiences, and texts. I draw from cultural studies theories to understand the power dynamics at work in constructing and maintaining brand identities as well as the importance of situating the context before analyzing any media object. The emphasis that media industry studies places on the overlapping mechanisms of structural roles, industry goals and policies, production practices, and the financial interest of

conglomerates on media frames the analysis for this project. Finally, production studies

examines the performance of corporate identity through media texts and rituals, which I apply to my interrogation of the TBS, TNT, HBO, and network web application brands.

By examining culture and cultural artifacts, such as the culture of producing brands or the brands themselves, it is possible to understand power dynamics and economic and social

relationships (Du Gay, Hall, Janes, and Mackay, 1997). For this reason, cultural studies theorists, such as Stuart Hall (1980) and Julie D’Acci (1994), study the media as a way to interrogate the social, political, and economic factors that work to establish, maintain, and challenge power relations in society. Another main component in cultural studies analysis is the importance of context. One cannot examine the part outside of the whole, and it is impossible to investigate a media text or industry trend without taking into consideration the social, economic, political, and historic context it developed and operates within (Grossberg, 1997; Hammer and Kellner, 2009). More recently, Julie D’Acci (2004) proposed a revised model of the Open University’s Circuit of Culture Model that she argued specifically addressed cultural studies scholars conducting television studies research (du Gay, Hall, James, Mackay & Negus, 1997). This model, which she calls the “Circuit of Media Study,” highlights four processes rather than the five in the open model: production, cultural artifact, reception, and sociohistorical context. The primary aim of D’Acci’s (2004) model is to describe and map possible ways for how critical researchers analyze the media along with encouraging the study of economic imperatives at every site on the circuit. I agree with D’Acci’s (2004) theorization and particularly the emphasis she places on the constant drive for profits, but I primarily focus my analysis on the production process and the sociohistorical context.

For these reasons, I utilize D’Acci’s (2004) circuit of media study as a guide for my analysis of Time Warner’s post-network era branding strategies. For the production process, I interviewed cable branding and programming executives to understand their strategies, practices, and institutional priorities. The cultural text I examine is the network brand for each cable network I analyze: TBS, TNT, and HBO. D’Acci (2004) does not perceive a formal reception study as necessary in her model; though I do not fully examine reception either, I look at the

various new media technologies available in the market and use secondary audience research, including industry data such as that conducted by Nielsen as well as scholarly studies, to understand viewing behavior in the post-network era. Finally, I consider the sociohistorical context in the evolving post-network era, including widespread industry trends, institutional shifts such as the merger and subsequent devolution of the relationship between AOL and Time Warner, the strategies and tactics employed by workers at competing broadcast and cable networks, and the challenges posed by the post-network media environment for the cable television industry, in particular as they pertain to TBS, TNT, and HBO.

The second field this project aims to connect with is media industry studies, a relatively newly articulated field of study to academia, though such work has been undertaken before such a label existed. The emphasis that media industry studies places on the overlapping mechanisms of structural roles, industry goals and policies, production practices, and the financial interest of conglomerates on media frames the analysis for this project. Holt and Perren (2009) argue media industry studies developed in response to the rapidly changing media environment of the post- network era. Media industry studies scholars acknowledge that media workers negotiate

structural roles, corporate policies, industrial strategies, and production practices with the goal of satisfying the financial interests of conglomerates. Media industry studies also draws heavily from production studies and cultural studies, which is one reason that much overlap exists between the three.

My study of the particular divisions, agents, and strategies operating within Time Warner, Inc. fits well within these parameters yet addresses a new area of research in my focus on branding. I examine how ideas about texts, audiences, and the cable television industry at large have formed, changed, and influenced Time Warner’s promotional strategies and practices.

In keeping with the scholarship I draw from, I recognize and examine the sociohistorical context at all sites of my analysis and look at the cultural, economic, and social dimensions at work. Media industry studies scholars argue for a holistic investigation of all the parts that contribute to the media industries (Holt and Perren, 2009; Havens, Lotz and Tinic, 2009). This echoes the circuit of media study’s claim that researchers must consider all the interrelationships between the various sites. Looking at just the media text or just production practices is not enough. I also used methods common in media industry studies such as close readings of discourses in trade publications and interviews with cultural workers. These techniques are also used in production studies, a framework within media industry studies that further informs this project.

Production studies, simply defined, involves “research about people who make television programs [or films] and how these people work” (Davies, 2006, p. 21). I adopted a particular type of production study in this dissertation, outlined by John Caldwell (2006a; 2006b; 2008) that focuses on the culture of media production, the performance of corporate identity, and a look at “critical industrial practices.” Critical industrial practices, according to Caldwell (2006a), include “the contemporary industry’s ‘deep’ texts, rituals, and spaces,” such as promotional campaigns, trade publications, logos and branding material, professional events and conventions, upfront meetings, and everyday workplace practices. All of these items are examined in this project. Cable television networks, such as TBS, TNT, and HBO, utilize and orchestrate those rituals and texts in a coordinated effort to communicate a clear brand identity to audiences, advertisers, cable service providers as well as to their network competitors. This performed identity is worth examination so we can better understand how cultural workers’ perceptions and industrial processes create and maintain media brands. In the next section, I engage with

literature on branding to contextualize and map out my arguments and ideas on how cable television network branding and promotion operate in the post-network era.