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Science does not occupy a prominent place on Spanish television, possibly due to those in charge of the creation, production, organization, and programming of content. Previous research has shown that television executives have mental images of their audiences that they actively use in their professional practice. This study adopts a mixed, qualitative-quantitative method to determine the beliefs of Spanish television executives regarding the attitudes of their audiences toward scientific programs and content. The study began with two focus groups, each made up of five professionals, to identify a wide range of attitudes. A Likert-scale questionnaire was then applied to examine the level of agreement with those attitudes among 450 employees of different types of private and public networks from six different regions of Spain. The main findings are that Spanish television managers do not believe that their viewers enjoy scientific topics or have any interest in them. However, professionals with previous experience of the production of scientific content tend to have a slightly more positive attitude about the opinion of general audiences regarding televised science. Hence, familiarity with televised science positively impacts the appreciation of such content on television. This research highlights the fundamental role of network managers in explaining the lack of science on Spanish media. Its results are coherent with previous studies confirming that TV professionals have preconceived images about their audiences that are derived from their own preferences and that guide their decisions.

The infamous emperor Caligula ruled Rome from A.D. 37 to 41 as a tyrant who ultimately became a monster. An exceptionally smart and cruelly witty man, Caligula made his contemporaries worship him as a god. He drank pearls dissolved in vinegar and ate food covered in gold leaf. He forced men and women of high rank to have sex with him, turned part of his palace into a brothel, and committed incest with his sisters. He wanted to make his horse a consul. Torture and executions were the order of the day. Both modern and ancient interpretations have concluded from this alleged evidence that Caligula was insane. But was he? This biography tells a different story of the well-known emperor. In a deft account written for a general audience, Aloys Winterling opens a new perspective on the man and his times. Basing Caligula on a thorough new assessment of the ancient sources, he sets the emperor's story into the context of the political system and the changing relations between the senate and the emperor during Caligula's time and finds a new rationality explaining his notorious brutality.

The infamous emperor Caligula ruled Rome from A.D. 37 to 41 as a tyrant who ultimately became a monster. An exceptionally smart and cruelly witty man, Caligula made his contemporaries worship him as a god. He drank pearls dissolved in vinegar and ate food covered in gold leaf. He forced men and women of high rank to have sex with him, turned part of his palace into a brothel, and committed incest with his sisters. He wanted to make his horse a consul. Torture and executions were the order of the day. Both modern and ancient interpretations have concluded from this alleged evidence that Caligula was insane. But was he? This biography tells a different story of the well-known emperor. In a deft account written for a general audience, Aloys Winterling opens a new perspective on the man and his times. Basing Caligula on a thorough new assessment of the ancient sources, he sets the emperor's story into the context of the political system and the changing relations between the senate and the emperor during Caligula's time and finds a new rationality explaining his notorious brutality.

Students in a second year Chemical Biology course at the University of Queensland, Australia have participated in a 'Chemistry for the Masses' assignment as part of their course assessment. The assignment requires students to communicate scientific concepts to a general audience, which is not common for assessment within a Science course. This article describes the assignment components and reflects on the challenges of preparing students for such an assignment. It discusses the way in which negative student attitudes were ameliorated by (i) a redesign of the way the assignment was presented to students, (ii) redevelopment of the assignment components, and (iii) involving students in setting assessment criteria. The article will be useful to instructors considering similar assessment in their own science courses. [Author abstract, ed]

Perhaps no production is more difficult to discuss in this book than Agatha Christie: Marple, for which 23 television films were shown on ITV between 2004 and 2013. A lively and bold reworking of Christie’s novels, the series has also been widely derided—even reviled—by long-term fans of her work. And yet it was a popular success for much of its run, and even achieved a degree of critical acclaim early in proceedings, despite the widespread changes from the original mysteries. Whatever the feelings of many fans regarding the series, there is no doubting the fact that Agatha Christie Ltd achieved its stated aim to introduce the author’s mysteries to new audiences. This chapter looks at this series alongside a handful of standalone adaptations from the early twenty-first century.

Feature films, television shows, homemade videos, tweets, blogs, and breaking news: digital media offer an always-accessible, apparently inexhaustible supply of entertainment and information. Although choices seems endless, public attention is not. How do digital media find the audiences they need in an era of infinite choice? InThe Marketplace of Attention, James Webster explains how audiences take shape in the digital age. Webster describes the factors that create audiences, including the preferences and habits of media users, the role of social networks, the resources and strategies of media providers, and the growing impact of media measures -- from ratings to user recommendations. He incorporates these factors into one comprehensive framework: the marketplace of attention. In doing so, he shows that the marketplace works in ways that belie our greatest hopes and fears about digital media. Some observers claim that digital media empower a new participatory culture; others fear that digital media encourage users to retreat to isolated enclaves. Webster shows that public attention is at once diverse and concentrated -- that users move across a variety of outlets, producing high levels of audience overlap. So although audiences are fragmented in ways that would astonish midcentury broadcasting executives, Webster argues that this doesn't signal polarization. He questions whether our preferences are immune from media influence, and he describes how our encounters with media might change our tastes. In the digital era's marketplace of attention, Webster claims, we typically encounter ideas that cut across our predispositions. In the process, we will remake the marketplace of ideas and reshape the twenty-first century public sphere.

The Audience Experience identifies a momentous change in what it means to be part of an audience for a live arts performance. Together, new communication technologies and new kinds of audiences have transformed the expectations of performance, and The Audience Experience explores key trends in the contemporary presentation of performing arts. The book also presents case studies of audience engagement and methodology, reviewing both conventional and innovative ways of collecting and using audience feedback data. Directed to performing arts companies, sponsors, stakeholders and scholars, this collection of essays moves beyond the conventional arts marketing paradigm to offer new knowledge about how audiences experience the performing arts.

Scottish cinema is explored as a cultural industry and as an experience using a range of research methods. Documentation kept by cinema managers and diaries of cinema-goers are examined and patterns and conclusions are drawn from the results.

Piracy. It is among the most prevalent and vexing issues of the digital age. In just the last decade, it has altered the music industry beyond recognition, changed the way people watch television, and dented the business models of the film and software industries. From MP3 files to recipes from French celebrity chefs to the jokes of American standup comedians, piracy is ubiquitous. And now piracy can even be an arbiter of taste, such as in the decision by Netflix Netherlands to license heavily pirated shows.In this unflinching analysis of piracy on the internet and in the markets of the Global South, Tilman Baumgärtel brings together a collection of essays examining the economic, political, and cultural consequences of piracy. The contributors explore a wide array of topics, which include materiality and piracy in Rio de Janeiro; informal media distribution and the film experience in Hanoi, Vietnam; the infrastructure of piracy in Nigeria; the political economy of copy protection; and much more. Offering a theoretical background for future studies of piracy,A Reader in International Media Piracyis an important collection on the burning issue of the internet age.

The rise of cinema as the predominant American entertainment around the turn of the last century coincided with the migration of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South to the urban \"land of hope\" in the North. This richly illustrated book, discussing many early films and illuminating black urban life in this period, is the first detailed look at the numerous early relationships between African Americans and cinema. It investigates African American migrations onto the screen, into the audience, and behind the camera, showing that African American urban populations and cinema shaped each other in powerful ways. Focusing on Black film culture in Chicago during the silent era,Migrating to the Moviesbegins with the earliest cinematic representations of African Americans and concludes with the silent films of Oscar Micheaux and other early \"race films\" made for Black audiences, discussing some of the extraordinary ways in which African Americans staked their claim in cinema's development as an art and a cultural institution.