Media use Identifiable Techniques Scary music. Headline Close ups. Techniques that heighten our response, attract us, keep us watching, reading or listening. Most media include overt advertising, but also sponsorship influences media content and choices that are available to us. Each Person Interprets Media Differently Audiences are not passive, but are constantly thinking about what they see, read and hear.
Television is ritual.
People don't watch television by the program, but by the clock. Television is highly institutionalized. There are only a few major sources of programming. TV is an institution that is in the business of assembling people and selling them to advertisers at a price. There is very little regional, ethnic, religious, or other programming.