von Eva Maria Berger |
Life is short – we don’t even like the thought of that – so why do we enjoy sitting comfortably on the sofa in our living room to watch other peoples’ lives and emotions when we could turn to our loved ones and experience the very same sensation more intense right here and now? When TV became popular in the 50′s and technological development was off and running, it seemed like a miracle to watch people at another place. Back then, it wasn’t part of our preconditioned thinking that we could watch other places on the globe without actually being there. Imagine discovering a device with such an impact for the fist time – so close to humans (and consumers) lives. Imagine the amount of possibilities discovering everything we are taking for granted today – commercials, product placements, opinion leading – it was all undiscovered and new to people – business opportunities almost beyond imagination. Besides News and special events, such as the journey to the moon, our smart programming predecessors also decided to tell stories to the people so they didn’t have to go to the cinema. Now everyone with a TV was able to watch films right in their own living room. Soon characters were developed for the TV screen and they quickly became members of the family, returning periodically and always behaving as expected. Why, even though we are aware that the stories told are fiction, are we so fond of watching them and not leaving our house and participating in similar events ourselves? Why have we allowed the TV to replace the actions and events...
von Eva Maria Berger |
When I recently attended the Real Screen summit in Washington DC , what truly impressed me and stuck in my mind (and makes my point) was hearing Howard Lee of TLC explain the reason for the skyrocketing performance of the network. TLC took a new and really good look at their audience. By reassessing and taking a fresh look at their audience, they discovered a huge portion of female viewers living in the middle of the country. The programming was shaped accordingly. We are all very aware of their success and continue to be impressed and amazed at their ratings. http://adsales.discovery.com/networks/tlc/research/ The benefits of reevaluating your audience can’t be stressed enough. As the old timers like to say – “Times, they are a changing’ ‘” and because of that, the needs and values of our audiences are changing. Having that awareness helps us to see that there is a change in a certain direction and we can adjust accordingly. A great example is shown by the effect of current situations in western countries (North America and Europe) due to inflation and reduced public spending. These citizens face a rise in unemployment which in turn affects consumer behavior. There are many unemployed academics in their mid twenties wandering the streets or spending lots of time in front of their computer. How will this influence the audience’s needs? Will they seek more programming portraying the perfect lives and look for an escape from their own reality? Will a real life series addressing the issues bring and show empathy to your viewers and result in ratings for your network? These are the...
von Eva Maria Berger |
Experiences we create and make in the course of our life influence the ways we perceive our surroundings, situations and the world in general. Encounters we’ve had in the past such as arguments, loving exchanges, losses, or even books we’ve read – most of what we perceived from the outside- is influencing our current thoughts and actions. Let’s take a “look” at some amusing examples of visual perceptions and how they can differ from person to person: This is a famous picture. What does it look like to you? Some people see a young lady looking away. Others see an old lady looking down. The picture hasn’t changed. You just emphasize different parts of it and assign them different meaning. We fill in a lot of blanks with our minds. If we have incomplete perceptions, which we practically always do to a certain extent, our minds fill in the rest. Are those letters? Or are they just lines and blotches on the paper? How do you know? The meaning of something will change when you look at it differently. You can look at anything differently and find new meaning. Another example, especially for Television viewers, is that the eye only sees a small portion of the frequency spectrum of light. Human eyes can see nuances of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and white but don’t see ultraviolet or infrared. They’re just beyond the visual range. And vast ranges of radio waves, x-rays, micro waves, etc., are completely out of range. This same characteristic can be said of all the other human senses. Only...
von Eva Maria Berger |
Design thinking acquires and synthesizes information and generates creative, human-centered solutions. It is commonly used and that’s also what it’s known for- to design any object or offer a practical solution to a problem. In my opinion, the principles are perfect for TV Development; as it emphasizes on the great value on the empathy for the users, which is our TV audience. Design thinking offers better design solutions so let’s apply the principles to the creation and promotion of TV programming. Our friends at ABC Nightline did an experiment. They asked the most renowned design firm, IDEO, to come up with a solution for them and find out what makes IDEO so successful. As you would expect, there are many variations to the design thinking model. Generally, there are between three to six steps. Here is one approach adapted from Stanford’s d.school that I believe would work well for Instructional Design. A Design Thinking Process EMPATHIZE Research helps you define the problem and get to know the target population. Defining the problem is vital. Be as concise as you can be. A network I was working with was challenged with the time slot between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm weekdays. It simply kept losing its younger audience (and therefore, the advertising dollar) to its competitors. Research creates a more open mindset than Analysis, in which the focus is on breaking things down and finding answers. In design thinking, research is practiced through empathizing with the target population. Therefore, that is exactly what we did. The TV Programming developer should be thought of as an ethnographer studying and recording the...
von Eva Maria Berger |
Physically, we communicate nonverbal and often unintended on the part of one individual to another. Nonverbal communication takes place by means of facial expressions, head movements, eye contact, hand gestures, body positions and acts, tones of voice, and so on. In general, body language expresses an individual’s emotions, feelings, and attitudes. There is a lot to “read” in the other person – one just has to know what to look for. Joe Navarro wrote books about decoding human behavior. Its estimated that as much as 80% of our interaction with others is through non – verbal communication or body language. http://www.jnforensics.com/ Natsu Hattori is a scientist at the University of Oxford. Here is an excerpt of his paper. The study of body language is conducted at present mainly by anthropologists, linguists, and social psychologists, who refer to this science by the name of kinesics — the study of non-verbal communication or communicative body movements. These include the study of the ways and frequency with which people touch each other during a conversation, and the distance which they keep from each other during interactions. Linguists have regarded gestures as a form of language, perhaps even the predecessor of all human languages, and have studied the various kinds of kinesic communication used by different cultural and social groups, such as stockbrokers, beggars, and the clergy. Body language forms an indispensable element in social interaction. Facial expression and bodily movements can amplify, modify, confirm, or subvert verbal utterance, expressing meanings which elude or surpass verbal language. Thus it is a key to the inner psychological and emotional state of the performer: centuries...
