Polysemic TV and Multiaccentuality

Eva Nur Mazidah 120710209


In this writing, it gives information about Twin Peaks which is promoted as different TV program that it was original, the work of reliable auteur, and stylistically complex and well-made. This program’s mytic meaning is based on cinematic codes of value. As the time goes on, this program turns into viewer mania and addiction. To some, it is therefore called ‘polysemic’ which means that its signs and codes were open to a range of decodings, and ‘multiaccentual’ which means that it is being understood in different ways by different audiences. According to Collins, this phenomenon shows the notion of ‘postmodern’. In terms of programs and ads, postmodern shows ‘their ambivalence towards the original texts which they parody where the codes of the original are recognized and introduced but their ideological and stylistic limitations are also foregrounded. So, in this program viewers are shifted around from one code relationship to others; and viewers are various because it is promoted as ‘art’ and ‘soap’.

TV and Viewers: the Case of Dallas
It is explained that three forth of Dallas viewers is women. Dallas is mostly concerned with the emotional problems of the characters. Ang shows it as melodramatic imagination. For her it is true why women like Dallas because women in western culture are positioned as emotional, psychologising, caring, community-forming, etc.
Ang also analyzed the semiotic codes within program to see how its structure and mytic meaning can attract diverse group of viewers. She shows that camera plays e.g. close-ups also take significant role to viewers. She also mentions that character’s personalities and significance are also constructed within their interrelations to each other. The connotative level at the program is also consistent and makes sense besides its emotional realism is also developed.
Further, Dallas is realistic and naturalistic. It is shown by its inconsistent personality types. Thus Dallas combines ‘realism’ and melodrama as a unity. Dallas also uses various genre elements so that it can be watched and enjoyed by many different audience constituencies. Thus Dallas allows for multiaccentuality. Again, at the end of the day, people decode Dallas through various ideological subject-positions, invoking codes of ‘quality’, ‘realism’, dramatic criticism, or academic purposes. Therefore, by Ang’s writing, we can enjoy anything we watch in TV program or ad with or without dominant ideology, political responsibility, etc. programs and ads are there, it is on the viewers’ hands to interpret.