The Implications of Anderson’s Account of Television Viewing

The focus of this paper will start with an overview of Anderson's studies on television viewing behaviour and thereafter, the implications of his observations and findings for considerations in marketing communication.

Anderson’s Research on Television Viewing Behaviour

Anderson (1985, p. 178) sees his research in online nature of television viewing as “a means of studying the dynamics of attention and comprehension of multimodal discourse.” Highlighting that his research and findings apply to “the production of s

Saturday morning Children are more attentive than usual (less concurrent activities)

Knowing that attention is aroused or maintained if the viewers comprehend the content, TV commercials should be copy-tested to ensure that target audiences understand the messages that are conveyed by the TV commercials. Having said that, the plot of TV commercials should not be so predictable so as to terminate attention. Hence, the challenge is to know the target audiences well enough, so that the information contained in TV commercials are pitched at an appropriate level that captures the intended viewers’ attention and appeal to them directly. Sociologist Murray Davis explained the attention-getting power of information in an inverted U-shaped curve as illustrated below:

it provides, Bond & Kirshenbaum (1998, p. 158) pointed out that advertisers should aim to “buy shows that have a passionate following”. In other words, advertisers could explore sponsoring the whole programme to achieve high visibility and to maximize viewers’ attention. Since certain shows or dramas become “hot” every year and “since in the mass market, there is an assumption that everyone follows what is going on” (Ibid.), that is, “talk of the town”, advertisers would do well if they are able to leverage on the opportunities accorded by such “annual fads”.

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