The Media Studies Book

Chapter 4

 

Institution

Tana Wollen

 

Imagine a class visit to a television centre. We are led into a studio the size of a football pitch, crane our necks to wonder at galactic electric lights and do our best not to trip over cables coiled like pythons. We are going to watch a TV programme being made and for many of us it happens to be our favourite. On the set the kitchen, living room, bedroom and garden are much smaller than we’d imagined – just painted flats, you couldn’t actually live in them. We can see what the viewers will see by noticing which camera has the red light on and by looking at the monitors above us. (Sometimes we can see ourselves, just for a laugh!) It’s all worked out in advance by a man in the control room above the studio, ...