Engaging the Audience in a Digitised Television Production Process

Abstract

This article discusses producer practices and the reasons why they engage their audience in the production process. In a digitised media context, audiences have become more visible, mainly through social media, and have more means to participate. Our research deconstructs the production process of a particular television programme by means of the “hierarchy of influences” model, which separates micro and macro levels that influence production. It draws on in-depth interviews with all editors of Flemish current affairs programme De Afspraak (The Appointment) and on a three-month participatory observation. We conclude that immersive ways of engaging the audience are applied in our specific case. More broadly, we argue that although practices change, pre-existing norms and values about the television audience remain central to how producers engage their audience through digital and social media.

KEYWORDS:

• audience
• digitisation
• engagement
• “hierarchy of influences” model
• interviews
• participatory observation
• producers
• television production

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the editorial team of De Afspraak at VRT for willingly giving of their time, ideas and insights.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 By producers, we refer to people working in the production process of television in the broad sense.