PARATEXTS ON TELEVISION. Part 2

Exemplifications and interpretations. I regard forszpan (television teaser), known in journalistic works as the lead, as the basic television paratext. The etymology of forszpan reflects well its introductory nature — it is German Vorspann, or “horse additionally attached to a sleigh”. While preceded in dictionaries of foreign words by the qualificator “film”, it is defined as a commercial film composed of some scenes of a film to be shown in cinemas or on television (nowadays, in the Polish language, the notion is being replaced by its foreign correspondent, that is to say trailer). The most popular translation of the term in Polish media studies literature is «zwiastun» (trailer), but new discrepancies appear. The latter is an escort of a cinematic film (i. e. in Tadeusz Miczka’s works), meanwhile forszpan (teaser) appears in publications on television texts (e. g. in Wiesław Godzic’s works). I therefore acknowledge a distinction between the trailer and forszpan (teaser) which — presented in different media — acquire their limitations and possibilities. First and foremost, a trailer is longer and uses the verbal code much more, so it strengthens what has been said by the main character or a narrator with the text exposed on the screen. Moreover, its ending is a cliché, it is unmodifiable, and it is the following: “Coming soon”. As opposed to the forszpan (teaser) framework, it contains less temporal descriptions. Furthermore, a trailer is more independent as a text than a canonical television paratext.

As the function of the paratext is explained well by the following draft notion of television filmmakers: “lead”, I propose to introduce it synonymously next to forszpan (teaser) which sounds unfamiliar (thus resigning from the synonimity known from press sciences publications of the teaser and lead).

Lead (forszpan) consists in presenting fragments of the announced television show (iconic code), which fragments are symultaneously summed up by the all-knowing narrator (voice-over), and which is ended with a frame from the show as a freeze frame with the information on the programme title, place (television channel logotype) and time (day of the week or date and hour), strengthened with a load lecture of the same all-knowing narrator (code strengthening: verbal and written). Leads in Polish television channels have got clear initiating signals in the form of a board along with its sound. The board shows a characteristic (with the design, dimensions as well as font, background and plastic elements colour maintained) logotype of a channel (TVP) or a word “We recommend it” (Polsat), “Today”, “Tomorrow” (TVN), meanwhile the accompanying sound is defined, as in the realm of the radio, as a jingle. Paratexts on television, as no other, expose the temporal dimension of an announced corpus. Such deictic expressions as “And now”, “We will broadcast in a minute”, “Soon on your TV screens” elevate it to the range of “the basic discourse modus”. “An uncountable amount of television texts owe their existence — as Andrzej Gwóźdź claims — solely to the tematically and temprally unlimited macrodiscours of this medium (programme preview, trailers, programme cycle opening sequence). Such shows are subject to the regime of television time which causes that it is the broadcast date that is more important than what is actually broadcast” [Obrazy… 1997: 62]. Such vivacity of the stream of television is enforced by the illegibility of printed television programmes. As a consequence, there is the impossibility of fortunate programming in order to use the medium wisely on the basis of studying it [Ibid.]. The choice whether to stay at the TV set or near it or the choice of a proper television show happens live, in the real time of its reception. This phenomenon, for the next time, legislates the existence of paratextual microdiscourse in this medium, and it explains both its multiplicity and variousness. Moreover, it is strictly connected with the way of using modern television, which symptom is the zapping effect — quick, non-reflexive changing of channels with the remote controller [Chateau 1997]. A plethora of media sciences experts confirm the idea of the existence of the before remote era and the after remote era; they also confirm the opinion on the growing position of the thumb in creating the microworld of the audiovisual culture. The more television programmes are announced, the bigger the chance the spectator will catch the right recommendation between zapping, and his choice will be a given channel. This approach states clearly that escorts have to be governed by a certain type of rethorics if they are to catch the zapper in its own programme stream. Such temporal point of view is supposed to have deeper repercussions, media theorists claim that, in reference to the former representational formations, the modern media create a cognitive map of time in place of the cognitive map of space related with the change of the cognitive paradigm.

I once considered the presence of the slogan a generic feature of commercials [Loewe 2001], the pursue towards this direction may also be found among television lead creators although I will not analyze the rhetoric value of such practice. A few samples samples of it may be found in editorial notes on the fourth page of a book cover, but it is more often to present it on CD and DVD covers. Slogans used in Polish television leads are, in example, the following: Dwójka to rozrywka przez cały rok! (“Dwójka is full-year entertainment”); Dwójka na piątkę! (“Dwójka with flying colours!”); Dwójka — najwidoczniej Cię lubi! (“Dwójka — it seems it likes you!); Pasujemy do siebie — jak ulał! (“We just fit — really well!”); Jutro — tylko Dwójka! („Tomorrow — only Dwójka”) ; Nie trać czasu! Bądź z Jedynką! („Don’t waste your time! Just stay with Jedynka!”); Wrzuć Jedynkę na każdej imprezie! („Put on Jedynka at every party!”)¹.

The above-cited examples show that both channels cannot decide to choose only one main catchline what causes that — for announcing certain types of programmes or in certain time — some of them are presented. Another reason of the decline in their persuasive value is the fact that, notwithstanding their presence in the audiovisual medium, only three of the aforementioned appear in the audio version.: Jedynie w Jedynce!, Pasujemy do siebie — jak ulał and Wrzuć Jedynkę na każdej imprezie! Just these two reasons are enough for slogans not to be catchlines of these channels and enough not to connect a television channel with its slogan. On the other hand, the jingles as well as the logotypes (since 2002) of both channels were registered much more efficiently in the short-term and long-term memory. Since that moment, one should connect blue with Program Pierwszy (TVP 1) and orange with Program Drugi (TVP 2). Both channels’ boards, on which background jingles appear, are modified once a season on average. No Polish television channel has created macroleads which could serve as autopromotion for a given station, for there is no link between television channel commercials and the autopromoting strategy, what happens in radiostations. The same catchline (most often seen on billboards) sounds a dozen of time salso in the radiostation along with the jingle: RMF FM — radio, muzyka, fakty (“RMF FM — radio, music, facts”); Radio eM — kto słucha, nie błądzi! (“Radio eM — if you listen to it, you don’t go astray”). Meanwhile, Telewizja Silesia accidentally proposed a slogan TVS Włącz ciekawość (“TVS. Turn on your curiosity”), which is not used in the macrolead of the daily schedule.

Leads on television seldom appear separately, channels usually group them in three creating a paratextual block just like commercial blocks. Such practice is obviously not constituted by television paratexts, but it is used by the medium according to traditional rhetorics, in which the crucial role in remembering was played by repetitions and schemata. The stream of television consists, therefore, of the following elements appearing one after another: commercials — proper programmes (corpora) — commercials — paratexts — commercials proper programmes — commercials — paratexts etc. In this microscale, in terms of a paratextual block, there are three leads at most, what is best seen in the summary of leads in Telewizja Polska (TVP) when on the board, there are three Picture in Picture screens with titles and broadcast hours in order. Telewizyjna Jedynka (TVP 1) has taken the design of PIPs placed vertically, meanwhile Dwójka (TVP 2) — horizontally. This rethorical rule of three is not observed by commercial channels which rarely show three leads in a paratextual block, there are usually more of them. On public television, along with periods of greater audience (autumn, Christmas, Easter), paratextual blocks become much longer, and there are all possible types of paratext in their frameworks. On the other hand, this is what is usually fatiguing the public by commercial channels everyday. Too many leads in one paratextual block cause decline in the effectivenesss of remembering which leads easily to a new elementary strategy, that is to say to repeats of given leads during the day. Let us illustrate it with some data: in 28 leads of eight-hour TVN broadcast, 17 programmes were announced, so at least some of them were shown more than once, meanwhile in four-hour broadcast of Polsat of 01st July 2005 one author preview was presented five times, and on 31st August 2005, before the premiere of the autumn schedule, 23 paratexts were broadcast!

Neotelevision, both public and commercial, has withdrawn from the role of a speaker who presented a programme, reading the information from a teleprompter, in order to enrich the information with elements which could unite the viewers. Paratexts clearly show why television is going to show this exact programme and not other, finding for it an explanation while choosing lead information. It is of incredible importance in respect of the necessity of the polisensorial reception of the spectator, who is constrained to coordinate the perception of television show frame flashbacks and the commenting text expressed by the all-knowing narrator. There are, thus, different types of practice uniting, valuating the announced programme solely positively, for instance:²

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “Great gala of series on Polsat. The most favourite series and their heroes fight for spectators’ prizes in six categories. The ‘Teletydzień’ Award Gala live at 20:35 on Polsat…” (20th October 2004; bolds by IL);

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “The film scares with its truth. Everything is authentic here”;

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “Bioterror. Film about a gun used against the man. Today at 18:05” (TVP 2, December 2002; bolds by IL);

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “From the «Miej oczy szeroko otwarte»³ series: Obsessed by surfing”; 

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “Meeting with enthusiasts of one of the most dangerous plays with forces. Today at 20:15” (TVP 1, September 2002; bolds by IL).

For an entertaining television show, the key factor is being a “gala”, the most “favourite” kind of it; furthermore, if it is broadcast “live”, then it fulfills the viewers’s expectations. Neotelevision exposes extremely efficiently the directness of television relations, even if the broadcast is greatly delayed in time. Maintaining the viewer focused on the fact that everything may happen in front of his eyes, as people think, becomes the task of many programmes. The value of a television documentary is, without any doubt, “truth” and authenticity, that is why such attributes are ascribed to the Dwójka (TVP 2) show. On the other hand, an action film has to, according to the expectations emanate with nomen omen unexpected twists, oscillate on the verge of safetiness of its heroes. The expression of the attributes of announced programmes — according to the theory of the fulfillment of expectations — gives the spectator the satisfaction of seeing what he expects to see. On neotelevision, approving the standarisation and homogeneity of audience’s tastes, keywords of the mass culture should be used, for example the names of celebrities and magical rituals, such as the following:

[film fragment] [narrator]: “John Travolta in The General’s Daugher. Today at 22.20 on TVN” (6 May 2005; bolds by IL);

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “The naked truth about the legendary Robin and his team”;

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “A masterpiece o the master of comedy, Mel Brooks Robin Hood: Men in Tights on Saturday at 19.30” (Polsat, 30 August 2005; bolds by IL);

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “In this game, not only figures count, but also…”

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “Even the smallest mistake may decide upon life or death. Anthony Hopkins Bad Company at 22.45” (Polsat, 30 August 2005; bolds by IL).

Leads exposing creators and (or) programme characters may be regarded as true recommendations, for the names of celebrities guarantee, with their fame, guarantee quality of a given cultural text. Today, we can acclaim that the state of being a star granted by the publicity functions as a letter of recommendation. The connection of the keywords with mass culture names in leads should give a twice better effect of recommendation; thus, there are the following examples:

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “Sensational news: Michael Jordan comes back to game…” (TVN, 6 May 2005; bolds by IL);

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “And now an incredible guest! Behold Robbie Williams. Currently the biggest popstar…” (TVP 1, 16 December 2002; bolds by. IL);

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “The biggest hits. Behind the scenes of a concert tour”;

[programme fragment] [narrator]: “Tiredness. Joy of singing. Natalia Kukulska”;

[freeze frame + narrator]: „Era gwiazd. Today at 22.15” (TVP 1 16 December 2002; podkr. IL).

As opposed to the teletext independently and conscientiously turned on by the TV consumer, a news ticker, informing about the next show in a programme, may appear on the screen without the audience’s participation. It was introduced in public television in 2005, it has the form of a colourful bar moving at the bottom of the screen during the broadcast of a proper programme of a given television channel as an enterprise, that is to say during such series such as M jak miłość, Klan, Sprawa dla reportera reportages or cycles, i. e. Kawa czy herbata?:

“Zenek as a member of the European Parliament! It can happen only in Złotopolice. Further adventures of two fighting families in Złotopolscy⁴ today at 14.30” (TVP 2 at the end of Familiada⁵, 30 October 2005);

“Great cinema in Jedynka. The Pianist, an Oscar-awarded film by Roman Polański. Today at 20.20” (31 October 2005).

On the other hand, commercial channels, probably because of the fact they fragmentarise the same television show, place a static ticker in one of screen angles, announcing: “Soon, Baywatch”. Public television protects the rights of the authors of films produced for the cinema and only technologically adapted to be broadcast on television. In terms of the television macrodiscourse, such a film should have a close, clearly delimitated textual whole. Commercial channels do not protect extragenous products in such a way. The ticker presents the existance of a sui generis television reality, where it is not that every single television show is important, but its position before and after other shows. The vicinity is significant, and the ticker is to remind about it efficiently. The viewer has no possibility to go away, or in other words: he has to get back due to the information on the next programme in the stream. The ticker strategy encloses the authors’ conviction that the memory of the modern human being „is much more associating than linear” [Bolter 1990: 244], which results from the opinion of culture visionaries that „the people of the electronic era… shape themselves in the image and likeness of technology” [Ibid.: 44]. Obviously, these changes did not occur at the last cultural breakthrough, or circa 1989, when the Internet was spread as a hipermedium. The current state of cultural perception (including the medial perception) has been influenced by turbulences in the laminary history of the humanity [Loewe 2006], thus the era of orality, writing, typography, secondary orality and telewriting in such an order [Mizrach 2005; Wilk 2000].

The third basic television paratext is the television anchor preview. Its presence is the main feature of both Polish public television channels — TVP 1 and TVP 2. Commercial TV channels do well without anchors and their programme inserts, moving the responsability of image creating upon presenters or authors of important programmes. The “faces” of TVN are, in example, Ewa Drzyzga, Justyna Pochanke, Andrzej Mrozowski, Marek Czyż for TVS and for Polsat — Agata Młynarska, Bożydar Iwanow, Krzysztof Ibisz. They also take part in creating author previews.

Between the late 60’s and the late 70’s, nobody wrote in Poland about television commercials, television theorists and practicioners described the role of anchormen. Stanisław Kuszewski pointed out their role not only in creating a given television show, but also in creating the whole programme. “An anchor is a husband of trust of the audience, people ascribe such a person autonomy which he usually cannot perform, because of, for instance, the necessity of the collectivity of actions” [Kuszewski 1971: 28]. The author also notices the fact that an anchor text prepared by third parties with the whole context of its pronouncing, is identified with the television show matter. The satisfaction is probably bigger when the viewer is invited to a show by its authors, as it happens with Elżbieta Jaworowicz in the preview of Sprawy dla reportera, presented on Polish television for many years. But there are also conversations of Grażyna Torbicka with Tadeusz Sobolewski before any Kocham kino film broadcast which create the atmosphere of reception in the direct vicinity with the film. Programme and cycle authors as well as channel anchors are people who become acclaimed from the multi-million audience for a visit at their home. The function of television personalities is described in the following way by Kuszewski: “First of all, they constitute a plastic signal announcing a contact with a defined matter of a show. Second of all, audience emotions related to the type of a show are accumulated there. Third of all, they become people of our environment… and, as it happens with the closest ones, we get attached not only to their advantages but also to their weaknesses” [Ibid.].

The scheme of television anchor previews may be presented as follows: Short presentation of the show content or its thematic blocks — from unidimensional descriptions, definitional expressions to longer sentence descriptions; valuation of the show with valuating adjectives but also the usage of medial culture key words (“sensation”, “good cinema”, “hard sensations”); finally, reccomendation in the iconic (an anchor famous by his / her name and surname) and verbal form, by using words like “I recommend / we recommend”, “I invite you / we invite you”. Television channel anchors are featured by kindness. Firstly, the anchor welcomes spectators, what makes the preview incredibly kind since its beginning. Such a greeting is official, although cordially, for instance: “Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen!”; “Hello!”; “Hello, I am glad we can begin this week together”; “Welcome to Jedynka in the afternoon”. Greetings in acts of kindness usually have stylistically responding goodbye, but they lack in paratexts. The reason is to strengthen the viewer’s conviction about the continuity of the production of television stream, in which he or she may enter anytime, the best situation would be if he or she did not leave it at all. In the context of television hypernarration, it is worth adding that anchors appear on the screen during prime time, that is to say between 16:00 and 21:00. It means they greet TV viewers not at the beginning of television strem (because there is no such phase), not at the beginning of a day, but in the afternoon, in an indefinite place in television stream, which could be described the best from the point of view of the person of interest: the anchor welcomes at the beginning of his/her shift on television. That is how one should understand the greeting in the function of initiating paratexts. A curious vacation idea of „Jedynka” was to record previews for programme series broadcast in July 2008 (sponsored by TVP 1) and with the presence of Jarosław Kret, whose role in the channel (weather forecaster) and popularity among spectators (he appears voluntarily in various media with courage and passion of a traveller) were used. The preview was adapted to a weather forecast with placing on a map different places from which the channel would broadcast and with given air dates. Proper indications were indicated and read out by the mentioned anchor.

Another version of a television preview is the author preview, in which viewers see and hear the announcement of the author, who is simultaneously a charismatic author of television programmes broadcast already for a long time due to the fact he or she is appreciated by the audience (or are to be respected in program makers’ projects). On TVP 1, there is for instance Sprawa dla reportera of Elżbieta Jaworowicz (there was also Tadeusz Mosz’s Plus minus), on TVP 2 — Szansa na sukces of Elżbieta Skrętkowska, on TVN — Rozmowy w toku of Ewa Drzyzga. It is such type of paratexts which is used by all analysed television channels, and it is the only element connecting all of them. The leading code in such previews is the text expressed by the programme author, but, most often, it is also accompanied by fragments of announced programmes (audiovisual code). The main modification here is the lack of visual and verbal synchronization. After a programme bit, being an autosummary, authors appear on the screen and invite people to watch the show. It is the first time I have used the word “invitation” since it appears in the author’s paratext. Its verbal positive valuation is minimised, for it is the author’s person who performs this role. In this case, television paratexts are truly close to metatexts: introduction, dedication, motto etc. It is all about the person — as a hallmark of metatexts, I have assumed the unity of the author of creative actions concerning both the text and paratext, and author invitations clearly fulfill this requirement The summary presented in such a preview, however, does not give us tools to interpret shows, and that is, in my perspective, the feature discerning paratexts from metatexts. Of course, in the initial or final part of previews there are such expressions which exclude metatexts, for temporal descriptions indicate that a television programme has not come yet, but it shall come. I shall mention once more that a preview may appear when there is already a corpus, meanwhile the designed viewer does not know it yet and should not know it.

No doubt that this type of paratext may be defined as an “invitation”, because it ensures the usage of the verb “invite”, such as in the following example:

[jingle] [programme fragment][Tadeusz Mosz]: “There are no winners in this competition yet. The most popular currency — the United States dollar — is stronger just to become weaker from the euro in no time. But for us, the most important thing is that the exchange rate of both the currencies declines in respect of the zloty. How long will the Polish zloty strengthen? What concerns may foreign currency loaners have? We are going to talk about this, but not only, in the next Plus minus⁶ programme. Join us!” (bolds by IL). 

In 2004, the type of author teasers was efficiently modified by television channels. It has led to the creation of its another sort, or the flash. While an author preview may appear at any time before the broadcast of a television show, a flash may exist only at the exact day, especially anticipating one programme before the corpus, for instance a Wiadomości flash appears before Wieczorynka. The presence of representative (and not recommending) sentences augments; thus, the emphasis is imposed on the compression of the show content:

[programme signal] [Ewa Drzyzga]: “Today in Rozmowy w toku⁷, we are going to discuss a rather irritating topic. We are going to think about what a man should do when he gets to know that the child he supports financially is not his. Watch us at 19.50, in a couple of minutes” (TVN, 6 may 2005).

As we may observe in the example, the flash is not commenced with a channel logotype board and its jingle, but with an audiovisual sign of a given programme.

The way of presenting the author resembles his / her image at work, what may be observed in the clothing (anchors without jackets, in positions differing from those in the programme) and in the scenery (news room or undecorated studio behind them).

Flashes shortly present the content of the programme, recommend it in a lesser grade (valuation is done by the author, known for his name and surname and who presents himself / herself individually) while maintaining temporal expressions at the end of the preview.

Finally, there are also previews based on genres already known in this medium before the era of paratext expansion. The aforementioned presentation of Jarosław Kret with the forecast of entertaining programmes on public television is a great example of such material, filling the medium with autopromoting content. As a paratext on neotelevision, the interview functions well. Deriving from a publishing type of modern Polish, it fulfills the primary cognitive goal as a paratext. Its participants are the television channel anchor or the show founder and invited guests, but the paratext does not occur because of the guest. The topic of such an interview is always the television show which is escorted by it. The guest is invited to give an interview, for he is predestinated to say something about the show or is somehow engaged into it. A canonical interview does not have only one topic, and the coherence of its sequence is ensured by the responding party’s presence [Kita 1998]. Thus, a medial interview is attractive, because it allows the recipient to know the guest better thanks to the interview topics and life details. An interview in the paratextual function shall be attractive mainly due to the knowledge on the show it represents, achieved by a sequence of the host’s questions and the guest’s responses. Perły z lamusa of Tomasz Raczek guested Zygmunt Kałużyński, meanwhile the main guest of the TVP 2 Kocham Kino⁸ cycle of Grażyna Torbicka is Tadeusz Sobolewski, critic, but she also invites the creators of broadcast films⁹.

A couple of times a year, Polish public television broadcasts paratexts as minishows starring the actors of escorted programmes, or fiction-like previews. Both the fictional and verbal structure have a ludic purpose, and it should fulfill the original function of paleotelevision — entertain and educate simultaneously.

One may say accordingly with the truth about paratexts what media studies experts (Casetti, Odin, Véron, Moeglin, Sultan, Satre) tell us about the insert in neotelevision, that is to say that:

a) they are statistically dominant (next to commercials, they belong to the most frequent constituents of the stream),

b) they have the structuring and segmentational role,

c) they have the greatest visual and — let us say — verbal dynamicity,

d) for this reason, they have the biggest power of attraction in the stream,

e) they are their main generators.

Paratexts constitute a suggestive invitation and function as an escort of a television show in the stream. Their task is to target the viewer to such a show, their assumption is that such TV consumer wants to be targeted to the show and expects advice. The extension of the life of a show belongs to other forms of the medial culture (programmes such as «Klan» od kuchni, Kulisy serialu «M jak miłośc», debate on the show topic right after its broadcast, book editions on the set, actor commentaries etc.), not only in the textual form (gadgets). These are also promoting forms, but not all of them are autopromoting, for they also appear in environments other than the television one (such as t‑shirts with printed design or with the image of show heroes). Thus, it may be treated as postfabricates, television margins, post-texts… They have a great cultural meaning, it is like signum temporis, but for genological research (in the realm of linguistics) this significance is smaller, for they borrow genre formulas generally known on television from their textual forms (such as an interview, news, discussion or weather forecast as a paratext).

Statistics. The proper research was conducted at a single time on 16th December 2002 as a recording of the whole TVP 1 programme, and it gave the following results: out of 18 hours and 40 minutes of the programme, paratexts lasted 59 minutes and 7 second; thus, it took 1/5 of the whole material. It is to be taken into consideration that some programmes were previewed four, six or eight times, and the longest paratextual block lasted 9 minutes and 11 second. According to the Polish Television data, it results that during the prime time, commercial blocks amount up to 5 minutes, meanwhile the average is up to 2 minutes. Since 2001, the general time of broadcast of paratexts is on the same level (5 per cent of airtime), but the number of its types still increases. In 2003, one knew about banner that it was a type of Internet commercial, and since 2005, it has been a form of paratexts. Among fatiguing (according to the common knowledge) television forms, it is only autopromotion, in the realm of which paratexts appear, is not limited by time, money nor by the form. According to the Radiophony and Television Act, a television channel may give a maximum of 3 hours (or 12 minutes an hour) for commercials within a twenty hour programme, the same amount concerns telesales (source: AGB Polska). Information on audition or programme sponsors may be broadcast 15 times before the premiere at most. It is more and more often that producers of television channels usufrust the lack exercise a privilege of limits on autopromoting forms.