People and “Their” Television Shows: an Overview of Television Connectedness

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

People and “Their” Television Shows: an Overview of Television Connectedness PEOPLE AND “THEIR” TELEVISION SHOWS: AN OVERVIEW OF TELEVISION CONNECTEDNESS Forthcoming In L. J. Shrum (ed.), Blurring The Lines: The Psychology of Entertainment Media. Cristel A. Russell, Andrew T. Norman, and Susan E. Heckler Contact Information: Cristel Antonia Russell Department of Marketing San Diego State University 5500 Campanile Drive San Diego, CA 92182-8239 619-594-0209 [email protected] 2 Introduction Recently, the realization that individual variations exist among audience members has prompted a more in-depth consideration of the television experience. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, researchers have started to explore how television viewers build relationships, loyalty, and connections with “their” shows, with the characters portrayed in the storylines, and with fellow audience members. In this chapter, we review the existing work on these more complex conceptualizations of television consumption and provide an overview of Television Connectedness. We present a conceptual model illustrating the types of relationships represented by Connectedness and propose a series of theoretical propositions relating Connectedness to various aspects of the psychology of the consumption of television programming. Television audience measurement began many years ago to support the sale of advertising space and to determine the success of programming strategy. For more than three decades now, Nielsen has dominated television ratings at the national and local levels with its measures of the audience size of network shows via its people meters - electronic set- top boxes that are placed in 5,000 homes around the country (Nielsen Media 2002). This and other traditional audience measures are often limited to “bulky”, global TV watching frequency that only consider sizes of audience segments and measure an audience as a homogenous sample in terms of viewing intensity (Beville, 1988). However, empirical evidence shows that people define “watching” as everything from “eating a snack while looking at the TV” or “sitting in a room where the TV set is on, but not looking at the screen or listening” (Clancey, 1994, 4) to instances when they might be intensely connected with the programs and the characters in it (Russell & Puto, 1999). Although these 3 consumption experiences are clearly different, such differences are not captured by quantity audience measures. We believe that viewers of current and popular television series such as Friends, ER, or The Drew Carey Show actually vary greatly in the ways in which and the extent to which they feel any relationship with the television programs they watch. Some viewers may become very connected to a program - visiting The Drew Carey Show’s website to see how they fare as a fan by playing the Drew or False trivia game, asking their hair stylist to recreate Friends Rachel’s latest hair color and style, or spending all of their extra cash to dress like the characters on The Practice. Others may be regular viewers, enjoying the entertainment of the show, but not noticing or remembering many specifics about the characters or the show’s storylines. Still others viewers may watch a program “just because it’s on” or simply to “pass the time away…when I’m bored” (Rubin & Perse, 1987, 258). Given this potential variation across audience members, the traditional reliance on the overall amount of television watching or audience size as a measure of television consumption seems to ignore important qualitative distinctions in the experience. Specifically, such measures do not account for the fact that audience size is not necessarily related to audience evaluation (Barwise & Ehrenberg, 1987). Additionally, the quantity of television watching does not account for variances in 1) how people watch and the motivations for watching television (Clancey, 1994), 2) emotional/affective responses to television programs (Pavelcheck, Antil, & Munch, 1988), and 3) the nature and strength of the overall individual-show relationships (Russell & Puto, 1999). 4 Conceptualizing Television Consumption Existing literature, particularly in the mass communications discipline, provides insights into the different facets of the consumption of TV programming. The uses and gratifications paradigm of communications research, for instance, has identified many benefits that viewers might seek from their television experience. In their research on the consumption of television news, Levy and Windhal (1984) stressed the need for entertainment/parasocial interaction, surveillance, and interpersonal utility. Rubin and Perse’s (1987) research on soap operas identified five viewing motives: exciting entertainment, pass time, voyeurism, escapist relaxation, information, and social utility. Lee and Lee (1995) also identified commitment to viewing, mood improvement, informational benefit, social learning, and social grease, as some of the key descriptors of viewers’ motivations for consumption of TV programs. While these approaches have been instrumental in identifying the motivations behind television consumption, they have yet to effectively demonstrate the effects of television on viewers beyond those explained by measures of overall television viewing. Important insights on television consumption also emerged with the advent of qualitative research methods in the fields of media and cultural studies. Ethnographic researchers like Morley (1980) and Livingstone (1990) offered rich accounts of television audiences, by exploring how viewers interpret and interact with television programs. Qualitative methods also served to understand how subcultures of consumption develop around television programs, with their rituals, paraphernalia, and participation in collective activities such as fan groups, conventions, and on the Internet (Kozinets 2001). Collectively, existing research suggests that when conceptualizing the consumption of television programs we should recognize that the experience of television extends beyond 5 the actual viewing experience and involves pre- as well as post-exposure phases (Levy & Windhal, 1984). Indeed, in addition to addressing responses that occur during the viewing of a program such as the emotional arousal or the informational benefits (Lee & Lee, 1995) or even active interactions with the program (Whetmore & Kielwasser, 1983), television consumption involves key activities that take place before watching a program such as selection and anticipation (Perse, 1990) as well as ways that viewers might use a program after they watch it, such as for its social utility (Morley, 1980). Therefore, it is more important to think of viewers’ interactions with television along more complex dimensions than “quantity” or “regularity” and to recognize that viewers’ relationships with television programs may vary in type and intensity. The contributions of the research serve as the basis for our efforts to define and measure Connectedness and its implications. What is Connectedness? In an attempt to provide a complex and qualitatively rich view of television audience experiences, Connectedness research has identified different types of relationships that develop between viewers and their programs. Russell and Puto (1999) initially introduced “Connectedness” as a multidimensional construct that captures the extent to which a television program influences the personal and social aspects of the viewer’s life. Through a qualitative assessment of focus groups, in-depth interviews, and Internet fan forums, they demonstrated that Connectedness captured a TV program’s contribution to a viewer’s self and social identity, beyond the mere watching experience. In more recent research, a Scale of Connectedness has been developed and validated (Russell, Norman, & Heckler, 2002) that focuses on the relationships that individual viewers develop with TV shows and the characters in those shows. Their instrument measures the intensity of the relationships that 6 individuals develop with “their” television show and thus concentrates on the relationships between the viewer, the program itself, and the characters portrayed in the program.1 Overall, this research on Connectedness proposes that several types of connections develop around television programs. Russell, Norman and Heckler (2002) established that Connectedness can involve connections drawn from self-show relationships as well as those developed with the characters in the show. Russell and Puto (1999) also emphasized the social embeddedness of the television experience and the importance of relationships within the community of viewers. Figure 1 (see Appendix) captures these different types of connections and provides a model of the connections that exist within the realm of television consumption. In this model, vertical connections reflect the relationships between viewers and their programs, para-social (or vertizontal) connections are those that emerge between viewers and the characters in the show, and horizontal connections are those that represent the social relationships between viewers (Frenzen & Davis, 1990). We discuss each dimension in more detail in the following sections. Vertical Connections: Viewer-Program Vertical connections are established between an individual viewer and the program itself. Such relationships may be facilitated in various ways. For example, it is common for dedicated viewers of a program to view each and every episode that airs. People typically rearrange their schedules or record episodes of “their show” to ensure
Recommended publications
  • Telling Stories with Soundtracks: an Empirical Analysis of Music in Film
    Telling Stories with Soundtracks: An Empirical Analysis of Music in Film Jon Gillick David Bamman School of Information School of Information University of California, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley [email protected] [email protected] Abstract (Guha et al., 2015; Kociskˇ y` et al., 2017), natural language understanding (Frermann et al., 2017), Soundtracks play an important role in carry- ing the story of a film. In this work, we col- summarization (Gorinski and Lapata, 2015) and lect a corpus of movies and television shows image captioning (Zhu et al., 2015; Rohrbach matched with subtitles and soundtracks and et al., 2015, 2017; Tapaswi et al., 2015), the analyze the relationship between story, song, modalities examined are almost exclusively lim- and audience reception. We look at the con- ited to text and image. In this work, we present tent of a film through the lens of its latent top- a new perspective on multimodal storytelling by ics and at the content of a song through de- focusing on a so-far neglected aspect of narrative: scriptors of its musical attributes. In two ex- the role of music. periments, we find first that individual topics are strongly associated with musical attributes, We focus specifically on the ways in which 1 and second, that musical attributes of sound- soundtracks contribute to films, presenting a first tracks are predictive of film ratings, even after look from a computational modeling perspective controlling for topic and genre. into soundtracks as storytelling devices. By devel- oping models that connect films with musical pa- 1 Introduction rameters of soundtracks, we can gain insight into The medium of film is often taken to be a canon- musical choices both past and future.
    [Show full text]
  • The Work of the Critic
    CHAPTER 1 The Work of the Critic Oh, gentle lady, do not put me to’t. For I am nothing if not critical. —Iago to Desdemona (Shakespeare, Othello, Act 2, Scene I) INTRODUCTION What is the advantage of knowing how to perform television criticism if you are not going to be a professional television critic? The advantage to you as a television viewer is that you will not only be able to make informed judgment about the television programs you watch, but also you will better understand your reaction and the reactions of others who share the experience of watching. Critical acuity enables you to move from casual enjoyment of a television program to a fuller and richer understanding. A viewer who does not possess critical viewing skills may enjoy watching a television program and experience various responses to it, such as laughter, relief, fright, shock, tension, or relaxation. These are fun- damental sensations that people may get from watching television, and, for the most part, viewers who are not critics remain at this level. Critical awareness, however, enables you to move to a higher level that illuminates production practices and enhances your under- standing of culture, human nature, and interpretation. Students studying television production with ambitions to write, direct, edit, produce, and/or become camera operators will find knowledge of television criticism necessary and useful as well. Television criticism is about the evaluation of content, its context, organiza- tion, story and characterization, style, genre, and audience desire. Knowledge of these concepts is the foundation of successful production. THE ENDS OF CRITICISM Just as critics of books evaluate works of fiction and nonfiction by holding them to estab- lished standards, television critics utilize methodology and theory to comprehend, analyze, interpret, and evaluate television programs.
    [Show full text]
  • Netflix and the Development of the Internet Television Network
    Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE May 2016 Netflix and the Development of the Internet Television Network Laura Osur Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Osur, Laura, "Netflix and the Development of the Internet Television Network" (2016). Dissertations - ALL. 448. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/448 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract When Netflix launched in April 1998, Internet video was in its infancy. Eighteen years later, Netflix has developed into the first truly global Internet TV network. Many books have been written about the five broadcast networks – NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the CW – and many about the major cable networks – HBO, CNN, MTV, Nickelodeon, just to name a few – and this is the fitting time to undertake a detailed analysis of how Netflix, as the preeminent Internet TV networks, has come to be. This book, then, combines historical, industrial, and textual analysis to investigate, contextualize, and historicize Netflix's development as an Internet TV network. The book is split into four chapters. The first explores the ways in which Netflix's development during its early years a DVD-by-mail company – 1998-2007, a period I am calling "Netflix as Rental Company" – lay the foundations for the company's future iterations and successes. During this period, Netflix adapted DVD distribution to the Internet, revolutionizing the way viewers receive, watch, and choose content, and built a brand reputation on consumer-centric innovation.
    [Show full text]
  • David Silberberg San Francisco Bay Area Location Sound Mixer, Analogue Audio Restorer, FCP Editor, and Film-Maker
    1 David Silberberg San Francisco Bay Area Location Sound Mixer, Analogue Audio Restorer, FCP Editor, and Film-maker P.O. Box 725 El Cerrito, CA 94530 (510) 847-5954 •Recording sound tracks for film and television professionally since 1989, from hand-held rough and ready documentaries to complex multicam, multitrack productions. Over 20 years experience on all kinds of documentaries, narratives, network and cable television, indie and corporate productions. Final Cut Pro Editor and award winning film-maker (for Wild Wheels and Oh My God! Itʼs Harrod Blank! ) • Recording Equipment Package Boom Mics: 3 Schoeps mics with hypercardiod capsules, Senneheiser MK-70 long shotgun mic, Schoeps bidirectional MS stereo recording, Assorted booms and windscreens Wireless Mics: 2 Lectrosonics 411 systems, 4 Lectrosonics 195D uhf diversity systems Sanken COS-11 Lavs & Sonotrim Lavs Also handheld transmitters for use with handheld mics. Mixers: Cooper CS104 mixer 4 channel: audio quality is better than excellent. Mid-Side stereo capable, as well as prefader outs—for 4 channel discreet recordings Wendt X4 MIXER : 4 channel field mixer. A standard of the broadcast industry Recorders: Sound Devices 788t HD recorder- a powerful 8 track portable recorder with SMPTE time code and CL8 controller for doing camera mixes. Edirol R-09 handheld, HHB Portadat with Time Code, Nagra 4.2, 1/4ʼʼ mono recorder, Multi-Track Recording: Using Boom Recorder software, Motu interfaces, a fast MacBook Core 2 Duo laptop, and a G-tech hard drive Iʼm now capable of recording 16 channels at 48K, 24bit—with 1 track reserved for time code. The system is clocked to the 788 t ʻs SMPTE time code output, which also records 8 more tracks and I can record a 2 channel mix on dat tape as a back-up.
    [Show full text]
  • Limitations on Copyright Protection for Format Ideas in Reality Television Programming
    For exclusive use of MLRC members and other parties specifically authorized by MLRC. © Media Law Resource Center, Inc. LIMITATIONS ON COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR FORMAT IDEAS IN REALITY TELEVISION PROGRAMMING By Kent R. Raygor and Edwin Komen* * Kent R. Raygor and Edwin Komen are partners in the Entertainment, Media, and Technology Group in the Century City, California and Washington, D.C. offices, respectively, of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP. The authors thank Ben Aigboboh, an associate in the Century City office, for his assistance with this article. 97 For exclusive use of MLRC members and other parties specifically authorized by MLRC. © Media Law Resource Center, Inc. LIMITATIONS ON COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR FORMAT IDEAS IN REALITY TELEVISION PROGRAMMING I. INTRODUCTION Television networks constantly compete to find and produce the next big hit. The shifting economic landscape forged by increasing competition between and among ever-proliferating media platforms, however, places extreme pressure on network profit margins. Fully scripted hour-long dramas and half-hour comedies have become increasingly costly, while delivering diminishing ratings in the key demographics most valued by advertisers. It therefore is not surprising that the reality television genre has become a staple of network schedules. New reality shows are churned out each season.1 The main appeal, of course, is that they are cheap to make and addictive to watch. Networks are able to take ordinary people and create a show without having to pay “A-list” actor salaries and hire teams of writers.2 Many of the most popular programs are unscripted, meaning lower cost for higher ratings. Even where the ratings are flat, such shows are capable of generating higher profit margins through advertising directed to large groups of more readily targeted viewers.
    [Show full text]
  • Mixed Reality Technologies for Immersive Interactive Broadcast
    MIXED REALITY TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMMERSIVE INTERACTIVE BROADCAST O. Schreer1, W. Waizenegger1, W. Fernando2, H. Kodikara Arachchi2, A. Oehme3, A. Smolic4, B. Yargicoglu5, A. Akman5, U. Curjel6 1Fraunhofer HHI, Germany; 2University of Surrey, UK; 3HFC Human- Factors-Consult, Germany; 4Disney Research Zurich, Switzerland; 5Argela, Turkey; 6SRF, Switzerland ABSTRACT Up until now, TV has been a one-to-many proposition apart from a few exceptions. The TV Stations produced and packaged their shows and the consumers had to tune in at a specific time to watch their favourite show. However, new technologies are changing the way we watch and produce television programs. For example, viewers often use second screen applications and are engaged in lively discussions via social media channels while watching TV. Nevertheless, immediate live interaction with broadcast media is still not possible. In this paper, the latest results of the European funded project ACTION-TV, which is developing novel forms of user interaction based on advanced Computer Vision and Mixed-Reality technologies, are presented. The aim of this research project is to let viewers actively participate in pre-produced live-action television shows. This expands the horizon of the interactive television concept towards engaging television shows. The paper explains the concept, challenges and solutions resulting in a first prototype real-time demonstrator for novel interactive TV services. INTRODUCTION ACTION-TV [1] proposes an innovative mode of user interaction for broadcasting to relax the rigid and passive nature of present broadcasting ecosystems. It has two key aims: (i) a group of users can take part in TV shows providing a sense of immersion into the show and seamless natural engagement with the content; (ii) users are encouraged to use TV shows as a means of social engagement while keeping themselves and their talents more visible across social circles.
    [Show full text]
  • Developments in Television Viewership
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2016 Developments in Television Viewership Lucile E. Hecht Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/730 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] DEVELOPMENTS IN TELEVISION VIEWERSHIP by LUCILE E. HECHT A masters’ thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York 2016 © 2016 LUCILE E. HECHT All Rights Reserved ii DEVELOPMENTS IN TELVISION VIEWERSHIP by LUCILE E. HECHT This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies satisfying the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Giancarlo Lombardi ___________________ ______________________________ Date Thesis Adviser Matthew Gold ___________________ ______________________________ Date Executive Officer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract DEVELOPMENTS IN TELEVISION VIEWERSHIP by Lucile E. Hecht Adviser: Professor Giancarlo Lombardi In recent years the ways in which we watch television has changed, and so has the television we watch. “Binge watching,” almost the Oxford English Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2013, has taken a firm hold on the American television audience who now watches television not according to the broadcast schedule but on its own terms. So, too, has the practice of engaging with other audience members, be they friends, family, or strangers, while watching a show by using a secondary device – a “second screen.” These practices have been developing for some time, and as technology adapts to facilitate them the denizens of television viewers now consider them normal.
    [Show full text]
  • Indie TV: Innovation in Series Development Aymar Jean Christian Northwestern Univeristy I Spent Five Years Interviewing Creators
    Indie TV: Innovation in series development DRAFT Aymar Jean Christian Northwestern Univeristy I spent five years interviewing creators of American web series, or independent television online,1 speaking with 134 producers and executives making and releasing scripted series independent of traditional network investment. No two series or creators were ever alike. Some were sci-fi comedies created by Trekkers, others urban dramas by black women. Nevertheless nearly every creator differentiated their work and products from traditional television in some way. Strikingly, whenever I ask if any particular creator inspired them to develop their own show independently, I heard one response more than any other: Felicia Day. Indie TV creators revere Day for her innovation in production and distribution: she developed a hit franchise, The Guild, outside network development processes. The Guild, a sitcom about a diverse group of gamers who sit at computers all day to play an MMORPG in the style of World of Warcraft, ran for six seasons, from 2007 to 2013, and spawned a music video, DVDs, comic books, a companion book, as well as marshaled the passions of hundreds of thousands of fans. By the end of its run, The Guild had amassed over 330,000 subscribers on YouTube, though it could also be seen on other portals. In my work I have seen The Guild emerge as central to the online indie TV industry’s case for itself as antidote to what ails Hollywood. Day initially pitched to Christian, A.J. (forthcoming). Indie TV: Innovation in Series Development, in Media Independence: 1 working with freedom or working for free?.
    [Show full text]
  • Television Trends for Millennials and Generation Z in the Nordic Region
    The Ultimate TV Show project Television trends for Millennials and Generation Z in the Nordic region Annette Hill Imagining the ultimate Terry Pratchett TV show (done right) by a Nordic fan Summary The Ultimate TV Show project used mixed methods to analyze the television show preferences of Millennial and Generation Z viewers in the Nordic regions of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. The project used contextual information, including ratings data for the top television series from 2019 to 2020; news and magazine articles featuring critics’ top picks for TV shows to watch; and fan discussions about their favourite series on public websites. The primary data that formed the basis of this report included qualitative interviews with Nordic viewers. The project conducted interviews with 44 viewers, during November and December 2020, that addressed their tastes and values and the social context surrounding television. The sample included a mix of male and female viewers between the ages of 18 and 38. The research highlighted a golden age for television, where both linear television and streaming services provided a social place where viewers could sit around the campfire and experience amazing storytelling. From drama and comedy to adult animation and reality romance, audiences valued television as both a “friend that never lets you down” and a master storyteller that invited empathetic viewers to relate to characters and reflect on their own lives. Key themes from the empirical data included the shift from solo to social viewing, the DNA of television storytelling and the value of authenticity. In the past year, Nordic viewers have turned toward television to while away the hours at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    [Show full text]
  • WRITING for EPISODIC TV from Freelance to Showrunner
    WRITING FOR EPISODIC TV From Freelance to Showrunner Written by: Al Jean Brad Kern Jeff Melvoin Pamela Pettler Dawn Prestwich Pam Veasey John Wirth Nicole Yorkin Additional Contributions by: Henry Bromell, Mitch Burgess, Carlton Cuse, Robin Green, Barbara Hall, Al Jean, Amy Lippman, Dan O’Shannon, Phil Rosenthal, Joel Surnow, John Wells, Lydia Woodward Edited by: John Wirth Jeff Melvoin i Introduction: Writing for Episodic Television – A User’s Guide In the not so distant past, episodic television writers worked their way up through the ranks, slowly in most cases, learning the ropes from their more-experienced colleagues. Those days are gone, and while their passing has ushered in a new age of unprecedented mobility and power for television writers, the transition has also spelled the end of both a traditional means of education and a certain culture in which that education was transmitted. The purpose of this booklet is twofold: first, to convey some of the culture of working on staff by providing informal job descrip- tions, a sense of general expectations, and practical working tips; second, to render relevant WGA rules into reader-friendly lan- guage for staff writers and executive producers. The material is organized into four chapters by job level: FREE- LANCER, STAFF WRITER/STORY EDITOR, WRITER-PRODUCER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER. For our purposes, executive producer and showrunner are used interchangeably, although this is not always the case. Various appendices follow, including pertinent sections of the WGA Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA). As this is a booklet, not a book, it does not make many distinc- tions among the different genres found in episodic television (half- hour, animation, primetime, cable, first-run syndication, and so forth).
    [Show full text]
  • Reality Television Production As Dirty Work
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Good Character: Reality Television Production as Dirty Work Junhow Wei University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Communication Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, and the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Wei, Junhow, "Good Character: Reality Television Production as Dirty Work" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2094. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2094 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2094 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Good Character: Reality Television Production as Dirty Work Abstract Audiences, critics, and academics have raised significant moral concerns about reality television. The genre is commonly criticized for being exploitative, harmful, and fake. By extension, reality TV workers are morally tainted, seen as dirty workers of questionable character. This dissertation describes the sources of moral taint in reality television production and how production workers dispel this taint—making their work acceptable and even glorious to themselves and others—through everyday micro-level interaction. The data for this study comes from approximately 2 years of ethnographic observation at 2 reality TV production companies, attendance at 2 reality TV industry conferences, and interviews with 83 respondents, including reality TV production workers, television network executives, and people who auditioned to be on reality shows. Findings focus on the development process, during which production companies generate ideas for new television shows and pitch those ideas to television networks. First, I describe the development process and three significant moral dilemmas that workers face at this initial stage of production: creating negative representations (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • KCPS Launches New One-Hour Television Show for Distance And
    KCPS launches new one-hour television show for distance and virtual learners In partnership with KSHB and KCMI 38 The Spot, KCPS’s new television show will feature creative learning opportunites for all families in the Kansas City viewing area Kansas City, August 13, 2020: KCPS, in partnership with KSHB and KCMI 38 The Spot, has launched a new one-hour television show created to provide additional learning opportunities for all families in the Kansas City viewing area. ‘KCPS Homeroom’ is a new television show that will offer daily academic instruction in the core content areas for all age groups. These content areas include Math, English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies and Fine Arts. The goal of this television show is to provide an additional academic outlet for families as we all navigate education through distance learning and virtual learning during the pandemic. In order to reach more students, KCPS will air academic content on 38 The Spot every week day at 8:00 a.m. At KCPS, we understand the struggles of at-home learning; we understand the difficulties of balancing academics, family dynamics and work. Our goal is to provide an extra resource for not only KCPS students but students throughout the area. We look forward to providing this show for our families. We hope families find it valuable and continue to tune in throughout the school year. Start your day with KCPS Homeroom on 38 The Spot! This new one-hour television show created by Kansas City Public Schools is a learning opportunity available to all families in the Greater Kansas City metropolitan area.
    [Show full text]