O.E. 1.1: Identificar y seleccionar los aspectos del texto a estudiar y sobre los que se van a establecer las diferencias y similitudes.
O.E. 1.2: Diseñar los procedimientos de comparación de los aspectos del texto entre las tres adaptaciones analizadas.
Tras la creación del modelo de análisis, la siguiente pregunta tiene que ver con cuáles son las diferencias y similitudes entre los textos audiovisuales y en qué aspectos concretos se producen.
Luego, la pregunta de investigación es:
P.I. 2: ¿En qué aspectos del texto audiovisual existen más diferencias y en qué aspectos existen más similitudes entre las tres adaptaciones del estudio de caso?
Dar respuesta a esta pregunta general conlleva alcanzar dos objetivos generales: uno relacionado con los aspectos del texto que más difieren y el otro con los aspectos del texto en los que existen más similitudes entre las tres adaptaciones. Identificar por separado las diferencias y las similitudes entre los textos de las tres adaptaciones se considera importante porque cada una de ellas pueden dar información sobre elementos y procesos diferentes que pueden explicar el caso de estudio. Además, cada objetivo general posee unos objetivos específicos destinados a comparar por pares cada una de las adaptaciones del estudio de caso (la española con la estadounidense, la estadounidense con la italiana, y la española con la italiana). De esta manera, los objetivos generales 2 y 3 quedan conformados por tres objetivos específicos cada uno.
O.G. 2: Identificar los aspectos del texto audiovisual en los que existen más diferencias entre las versiones:
O.E. 2.1: española y estadounidense.
O.E. 2.2: española e italiana.
O.E. 2.3: estadounidense e italiana.
O.G. 3: Identificar los aspectos del texto audiovisual en los que existen más similitudes entre las versiones:
O.E. 3.1: española y estadounidense.
O.E. 3.2: española e italiana.
O.E. 3.3: estadounidense e italiana.
Tras conocer cuáles son las diferencias y las similitudes en los textos de las tres adaptaciones, la pregunta de investigación tiene que ver con cuáles podrían ser los factores que las expliquen. Se formula de la siguiente manera:
P.I. 3: ¿Qué factores explican las diferencias y las similitudes identificadas entre los tres textos de las adaptaciones del formato televisivo del estudio de caso?
Para dar respuesta a esta pregunta, se formula un objetivo general que se divide en tres objetivos específicos, cada uno dirigido a conocer los factores concretos que pueden informar sobre las diferencias y similitudes encontradas en la comparación a pares de las tres adaptaciones:
O.G. 4: Identificar los factores que pueden explicar las diferencias y las similitudes encontradas entre las versiones:
O.E. 4.1: española y la estadounidense.
O.E. 4.2: española y la italiana.
O.E. 4.3: estadounidense y la italiana.
Las preguntas de investigación y los objetivos planteados quedan conformados, luego, por tres preguntas de investigación, cuatro objetivos generales y once objetivos específicos.
Estructura del informe de investigación
La presente tesis doctoral se divide en cuatro partes. La primera parte se corresponde con el marco teórico, sobre el que se sustenta el estudio y está formado por tres capítulos. Específicamente, el primer capítulo está dedicado a los dos conceptos teóricos generales que contextualizan el objeto de estudio: la cultura y la globalización. Ambos conceptos son definidos y explicados en el marco de los estudios de la comunicación. Particularmente, se presta atención a la relación entre ambos y se presentan las principales teorías que han tratado de explicar los efectos de la globalización en la cultura.
El segundo capítulo está destinado al objeto de estudio: los formatos televisivos. En la primera parte se explica el marco industrial en el que surgen los formatos televisivos: la televisión transnacional. En él se realiza un breve recorrido por el desarrollo de la internacionalización de la industria de la televisión y se exponen las principales etapas y sus características hasta la actualidad. La segunda parte pone el foco de atención en los formatos televisivos. En primer lugar, se explica el nacimiento de los formatos televisivos y su evolución histórica. Después, se
profundiza en su concepción desde un punto de vista industrial y, de seguido, se expone su definición desde el punto de vista académico a partir de las principales concepciones que se han realizado sobre el proceso de la adaptación de los formatos. El último apartado de este capítulo se dedica a los formatos televisivos de ficción y sus particularidades.
El tercer capítulo presta atención a cómo la ficción televisiva se relaciona con su entorno social y cultural. En primer lugar, se aborda el género televisivo como una característica intrínseca a las ficciones porque hace interactuar a la industria, los creadores, los textos y las audiencias. Después, se definen las principales funciones sociales atribuidas a la ficción televisiva. El siguiente apartado está destinado a la cuestión de la representación y a las características de las representaciones que realizan las ficciones televisivas. A continuación, se exponen los principales mecanismos y estrategias de las ficciones para producir proximidad cultural, junto con los modelos teóricos que tratan de explicar a las series de televisión como productoras de identidad cultural. Finalmente, en el último apartado se realiza un repaso a los estudios precedentes que han explorado la adaptación de los formatos televisivos y a partir de ellos se establecen los principales factores que influyen en el proceso de adaptación y los aspectos del texto que más se ven afectados.
La segunda parte se corresponde con la metodología. En esta parte se incluye el capítulo cuatro que se divide en cuatro apartados. En el primero se justifica el estudio de caso como método de análisis y se establecen las razones del estudio de caso escogido. El segundo está destinado a la exposición de las diferentes técnicas de análisis de contenido, tanto cualitativo como cuantitativo.
A continuación, en el tercer apartado, se especifican y definen las herramientas metodológicas utilizadas. El último apartado está dedicado a la exposición detallada del proceso de creación y aplicación del modelo de análisis, y finalmente se desarrollan los procedimientos de análisis.
La tercera parte está destinada a los resultados obtenidos, consta de un capítulo, el quinto, con dos apartados principales. En el primero se exponen los resultados del análisis de cada unas de las versiones analizadas y en la segunda parte se ofrecen los resultados del análisis comparativo.
La cuarta y última parte está formada por dos capítulos, el sexto y el séptimo. En el sexto capítulo se realiza la discusión de los resultados con la literatura académica y en el séptimo capítulo se presentan las conclusiones del estudio, junto con las limitaciones y las futuras líneas de investigación que este proyecto de tesis doctoral sugiere.
Introduction
Cultural products are an active part of the debates that have been generated around the consequences of globalisation on culture. In particular, the circulation of television series to an international level has questioned the connection between television fiction and its sociocultural environment. Since their inception, television narratives have played a fundamental role in the cultural identity of a territory. In fact, US television series were accused of being instruments of American imperialism and of serving the expansion and imposition of their culture onto the majority of the world (Dorfman and Mattelart, 1975; Schiller, 1976; Varis and Nordenstreng, 1974). However, several subsequent theories have tried to explain the preferences of audiences for contents that they could feel culturally related to, such as the theory of cultural proximity (Straubhaar, 1991) or the cultural discount (Hoskins and Mirus, 1988).
Currently, a great many of the stories circulating are created by international consolidated companies. Global entertainment crosses national and cultural boundaries, promotes consumption in similar formats and topics, it conforms to local cultural norms and affects the social order in different ways. In this context, the adaptation of scripted television formats seems to fit into the needs of the market of world- culture perfectly as outlined by Lipovetsky and Serroy (2010): a product that can be sold globally and that, at the same time, can be adapted to the particularities at the local scale. Television formats, therefore, constitute an economic, industrial and cultural product that connects to the main issues and topics of the globalisation era.
In particular, television formats refer to the rights of intellectual property so that this content can be commercialised with the intention of adapting the concept to another television market with a different sociocultural environment. That said, the television formats are a commercial, industrial and cultural practice within the international television industry that has been consolidated in recent decades (Chalaby, 2016c). The growth of the television formats’ business has given rise to a culture of its own that is reflected in the creation of a market and a particular production model.
Specifically, a global value chain has been developed, formed by both producers and distributors dedicated exclusively to the television formats and by large transnational entertainment companies, that decide to invest in them. In addition, the creation of associations such as FRAPA (Format Recognition and Protection Association), dedicated to the recognition and regulation of formats, and the actions of EBU (European Broadcasting Union) aimed at the exchange of information, the exploitation of projects and the co-development of formats, mean the legal and formal recognition of television formats in two of the major global markets: the US and Europe.
Scripted versus non-scripted television formats (reality television, contests, etc) present particular characteristics. From the market’s point of view, scripted formats have had a different and steadier path than the rest (Chalaby, 2016a). In fact, the sale of television series as formats began its boom in recent years. Television fiction went from only 6.6% of the total number of formats commercialised in year 2000 to 15% in 2009 (FRAPA, 2009). Another example of the growth of scripted television formats is their entry in the US market and thus, the five major television networks in the USA (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW) show a greater interest in them. Data collected by Chalaby (2016a) reveal that in season 2012-2013, 8.8% of the series broadcast by the five large US networks, were adaptations of series from another country, next season the number of scripted television formats climbed to 11.1%, and in season 2014-2015, it grew to 11.8%. However, slow growth and incorporation of scripted television formats to the global market is due, among other reasons, to the fact that television series have been traditionally sold as finished products. Also, their production tends to require higher production values that is reflected in the budget, time and technical equipment needed, which makes their adaptation more complicated (Chalaby, 2016a).
Another major cause that creates greater complexity when adapting scripted television formats is the close connection between the television fiction and the society in which it is created and broadcasted (Buonanno, 1999, 2008). In general, humans have always shared stories to learn, educate, and entertain themselves (Artz, 2015). Thus, Buonanno (1999) states that television series are the most impressive narrative corpus of our time and perhaps even in all of history because of their ability to reach a massive public audience. In this regard, academic research has paid attention to the relationship between television fiction and its sociocultural environment. In this way, television series have been explored for the functions they can exercise within a society (Buonanno, 2008; Geraghty, 1995). Also, the relationship between television genres and sociocultural representations has been studied (La Pastina and Straubhaar, 2005; Liebes and Livingstone, 1998). Likewise, studies have tried to identify the mechanisms of cultural production in television fiction (Castelló, 2004; Dhoest, 2003; Meso, Dasilva, and Mendiguren, 2010).
Furthermore, television series as cultural and symbolic devices that are able to represent and transmit values, patterns of behavior and penetrate into the daily life of television viewers, have been strongly linked to the construction of the cultural identity of a territory (Castelló, Dhoest, and O’Donnell, 2009).
The special relationship between fiction and cultural identity transforms scripted television formats into symbolic and cultural products in addition to industrial and commercial products, and, in this sense, they can function as builders of the world-culture. As such, scripted television formats are part of the understanding of the cultural battle for the creation of a world of symbols,
of meaning, of social imaginaries with planetary characteristics. They are inserted into the power relationships because of their appropriation of materials, texts and discourses that make up the cultural hegemony. From this perspective, television formats can be seen as textual, political and popular mechanisms that raise questions relating to how they compete and interact at national, regional and transnational levels. Also, television formats introduce questions about how the thematic and textual conventions that result from their adaptations build meanings or how the concepts of collective identity operate within the global culture and change in the media (Oren and Shahaf, 2012). Related to this, Mirrlees (2013) states that global entertainment texts should be studied in detail to understand the stories, economic conditions and popular features with which they travel across borders.
In light of this global context from which television formats are born, the very existence of their adaptation is proof that national contexts are still relevant to understand entertainment. For this purpose, previous studies have postulated how the idiosyncrasy of a territory is still determining the creation of content for television, in particular the fictional ones (Garcia Avis, 2016; Larkey, Landry, and Er, 2016). They have also highlighted that there are factors connected to the national environment that affect how television series are made in each country. Thus, industry infrastructure, production resources or the design of the television system influence the style of fiction created in each territory (Diego González and Grandío, 2010; Jensen, 2007). In addition, television formats also reflect that the sensitivities and preferences of the audiences are still considered at a national or territorial scale, despite the increase in the global consumption of content. As a result, there are indications that prove that the particularities of each country may explain why the adaptation of television fiction takes place and which changes occur.
At the same time, the international circulation of products, practices and professionals within the television industry gives rise to the setup of a transnational space in which more elements increasingly converge (Keinonen, 2016; Van Keulen, 2016). The creation of a culture around the production, distribution and marketing of television formats encourages the emergence of a set of practices and standards that govern their operation, along with new professional figures such as consultants who are in charge of the service of assistance for the adaptation of a format, as well as representatives of television formats (García, Avis, 2016). The development of a television culture at an international level can also affect how contents are created and produced.
Especifically, this can be reflected in a greater similarity between them. For this reason, it is considered necessary to observe the similarities between the texts from adaptations because they can reveal the consequences of an increasingly globalised television industry.
Within the academic research, the beginning of the study of television formats was linked to their relationship with the cultural identity and globalisation, as seen in one of the pioneer works published in 1998 titled Copycat TV: Globalisation, Program Formats, and Cultural Identity by Albert Moran. Subsequent investigations have addressed television formats from multiple perspectives and issues until they became a field of study themselves. For example, television formats have been studied regarding their history and evolution (Chalaby, 2016; Esser, 2014;
Moran, 2013), their circulation (Moran, 2009), their economic value (Brennan, 2012; Moran, 2009), their production (Moran and Malbon, 2006; Puebla Martínez, Carrillo Pascual, and Copado Sánchez - Rico, 2014; Saló, 2003), their adaptation (Beeden and de Bruin, 2010;
Canovaca de la Fuente, 2013; García Avis, 2016; Larkey, et al., 2016), their impact on specific territories (Jensen, 2007, 2013; Nkosi Ndela, 2012; Szostak, 2013; Wagman, 2013) or the success of a television format in particular (McCabe and Akass, 2013).
This research aims to observe the audiovisual texts that result from the adaptations of scripted television formats on the basis of the identification of their differences and similarities and tries to determine which are the factors that explain them. In particular, the case of Spanish television series Los misterios de Laura (TVE, 2009-2016) and its adaptations for the US and Italy are studied. It should be noted that this project is part of the academic issues on cultural representation in media texts. It specifically evaluates the particular characteristics of scripted television formats and focuses on the resulting product from the chain of production: the content that is broadcast.
The study intends to identify the similarities and differences that exist between the contents that result from these adaptations. Furthermore, it aims to observe which aspects of the representation are most similar and different to attempt to discover which factors explain changes and persistance.
To achieve this purpose, this research needed to design a model of analysis that allows the exploration and comparison of the adaptations’ texts. So far, some preliminary research has made a number of proposals for textual analysis regarding the adaptations of the television formats.
However, for the most part these models have been focused on non-scripted television formats (Nkosi Ndela, 2012; Van Keulen, 2016), have been characterised by a strong qualitative and discursive approach (García Avis, 2016; Jensen, 2007; Mikos, 2015) and/or have been mainly driven by the search for differences (Er, 2016; Griffin, 2008; Larkey et al., 2016; Mikos and Perrotta, 2011). The proposed model of analysis in this research is based on a mainly qualitative approach, that intends to be systematic and, consequently, replicable. In addition, it allows identification, both from the differences and the similarities between the texts, and to compare them through the design of specific procedures.
Ultimately, this research is a response to the need of understanding in greater depth the processes of adapting scripted television formats and the progress in the study of the characteristics of these cultural products in the globalisation era.
Objectives and research questions
Consistent with the stated research problem, the first research question is related to the differences and similarities within the three adaptations of the television format that has been chosen for the case study:
R.Q. 1: What are the differences and similarities in the audiovisual texts’ adaptations of the case study’s television format?
Firstly, to answer this anticipated question, it is necessary to design an instrument of analysis that allows the analysis of the texts’ adaptations. However, the aspects and elements of the audiovisual text that are intended to be observed must be previously stipulated, and procedures establishing when there is a difference and similarity between these aspects must be also determined. As a result, the following general objective along with two specific goals are stated:
G.O.1: Create a model of analysis to identify the differences and similarities in the television