Naslov
Attachment Trajectory of Viewers’ Long-term Engagement with TV Series

Autori
Vidmar Jovanović, Iris

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
A BRITISH SOCIETY OF AESTHETICS CONFERENCE – TELEVISION AESTHETICS: NOW WHAT?

Mjesto i datum
Kent, Engleska, 07.07.2022. - 08.07.2022

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Plenarno

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
TV aesthetic, attachments, fictional characters

Sažetak
Referring to the widespread disappointment over the ending of the Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin recently cried: “I don’t understand how people can come to hate so much something that they once loved.” My aim in this presentation is to offer an account that explains this shift in viewers’ emotions that Martin so vividly captures. More precisely, I am interested at exploring the attachment trajectory of viewer’s long-term engagement with TV series, characterized by a shift from the sense of deep attachment to a certain TV show, to the sense of utter disappointment, even hatred, over its development and/or ending. To put it differently, I set out to explain how we move from being hooked to a certain show, to being heartbroken when it, as it happens, jumps the shark. Both of these extremes are commonly experienced by the viewers, and neither is restricted to sporadic instances. On the contrary, with respect to most of the shows regarded 'quality TV’, viewers’ attachment trajectory involves such shift of enthusiasm – from great heights to great lows. And while several accounts have recently been proposed explaining why this trajectory is so stable and inevitable with respect to TV, my focus here will be on the phenomenology of such experience. On my proposal, viewers are attached to a certain work for a considerable amount of time when they care for it and feel rewarded by such caring. Once however this sense of reward is absent from their experience, they start to feel disappointed. To account for such an absence, and such a shift, I first analyze some of the ways in which a show inspires and rewards a sense of care in the viewers, and I then move on to examine how this sense is betrayed. Underlying my analysis are insights from cognitive approaches to aesthetics, philosophy of taste and emotions, and television studies. My hope is that such an interdisciplinary approach encourages a future collaboration of these domains and shows just how fruitful research domain television aesthetics has become.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filozofija

POVEZANOST RADA