4. “One can never have a text that breaks all
the rules that people can understand. You
can avoid a given system (or conventions
in a text) but you must have some system”
(Berger 1994, p. 53)
5. “Structures, of the type seen in forms and
formats, aren‟t just constraining; they also
enable the making of television” (McIntyre
2011, p. 130).
6. “Without this structured approach to
making television or a method of working
that is efficient and fast, it is arguable as to
whether television would have as much
content to broadcast as it does” (McIntyre
2011, p. 128).
7. “The only way you can manufacture
quality, I think, is to have control. It‟s a
word I use a lot. I believe in control,”
(Martin Quinn quoted in Newcomb & Alley
1982, p. 74)
9. “How can a free-willed producer of
creative works be original and authentic,
or more importantly in this case, creative,
when they are working within the
constraints of a tightly formatted structure
imposed by corporate culture?” (McIntyre
2011)
10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az6
5I9Kp4Uc
Ten's CEO James Warburton said: "As part
of the renewal of Network Ten's creative
content, we are trying new formats and
creating more programming options.
Unfortunately, we didn't get the Everybody
Dance Now format right”.
11. “Excessive control „from the top‟ has
produced some material on television that
is uninteresting to certain critics and certain
viewers, but it can also be claimed that it
has also produced material that has been
interesting to many others, dependent of
course on their level of use, gratification
and activity as viewers, fans or
aficionados.” (McIntyre 2011, p. 119)
12. Creativity without some form of control
would be chaos
Television producers need to find a
workable balance
13. “You have to know the rules before you
break the rules,” (Martin Quinn in
Newcomb & Alley 1982, p. 75).
14. “In order for a cultural producer to engage
with this process of cultural change, they
must understand the conventions and
traditions, that is, the rules, forms and
structures of the domain they work in, and
understand them extremely well” (McIntyre
2011, p. 127).
15. What are the pros and cons of highly
structured television programs that simply slot in
new story lines (e.g. The Simpsons)?
SMH (2012) reported that “on another front,
Ten is also fighting a battle of perception, with
the media rewarding them for critically
appealing shows, but punishing them for other
shows when it suits the headline”. How do we
view shows that exhibit little innovation?
Which do you think would lead to the most
creative television shows and why; extensive
creative control, or little to no creative control?
16. Berger 1994 in Lecture Week 7
Byrnes, H 2012, „Ten‟s Everybody Dance Now gets the chop‟, Herald Sun, 21
August, viewed 5 September
2012, <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/tens-everybody-dance-now-
gets-the-chop/story-e6frf96f-1226455173972>.
Dictionary.com, 2012, Creativity, <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/creativ
ity?s=t>.
Idato, M 2012, „Can Ten Survive? Outback talent show fails to entice‟, The Sydney
Morning Herald, 22 August, viewed 5 September
2012, <http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/can-ten-survive-
outback-talent-show-fails-to-entice-20120822-24le4.html>.
McIntyre, P 2011, Creativity and Cultural Production, Palgrave Macmillan, Great
Britain.
Newcomb, H & Alley, R 1982, „ The producer as artist: commercial television‟, in J
Ettema & C Whitney (eds), Individuals in Mass Media Organisations: Creativity and
Constraint, Sage, Beverly Hills Calif., pp. 69-89.
Newman, M 2006, „From beats to arcs: toward a poetics of television
narrative‟, Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film and Television Studies, no.
58, pp. 16-28.
Ryan, B 1992, „Rationalising the creative stage of production: the formatting of
creativity‟, in W de Gruyter (ed.), Making Capital from Culture: The Corporate
Form of Capitalist Cultural Production, Berlin, pp. 145-184.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az65I9Kp4Uc
