Attraction on TV: Rules of Communication Game

Abstract

The essay analyzes the game nature of screen attraction - one of the
most important tools of television dramaturgy. Attraction is examined, in the
tradition established by Sergei Eisenstein and developed by Russian and foreign
researchers, not just as entertainment but as a way of influencing audience
perception. TV viewing is regarded as a special kind of game developing in
accordance with the rules established by a program’s format and repeated in this
program’s each new release. The key aspects relating classic TV communication
to game are: voluntary selection and viewing of the programs; clearly marked
place and time of occupation; a set of rules mandatory for a particular game;
the feelings of joy and fun generated by the participation in TV viewing;
immersion of the viewer in the "otherness" of the game and simultaneous
presence in everyday life. The rules of communication game are accepted by
all participants in the process: the makers of a TV product, the partakers and
the audience. Voluntary way of program viewing is an indispensable condition
for TV communication, and the attractions are its most active moments: they
are designed to capture and keep the viewer's attention, and to evoke emotions
associated with the pleasure produced by game.
The essay explores the attraction-like nature of TV shows both as a
content and as a set of the signs, as a way of the functioning of the audiovisual
language. The variability of the TV spectacle is investigated as the phenomenon
of postmodern aesthetics, as an aesthetic merit rather than an immanent
disadvantage a priori depriving TV products of the right to uniqueness