80 | 28, pp. 79-96 | doxa.comunicación

January-June of 2019

Historical and conceptual review of authorship and its implications for television media...

ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978

1. Introduction

The attribution of authorship over a creative project represents a complex undertaking, promoting critics and scholars from different disciplines –literature, cinema, and television– to show an interest in this issue. In this sense, many academic researchers have reviewed contributions regarding the concept of author in cinema and literature, whose findings will provide the basis for studying it in the television media (Mittell, 2015).

The Politique des Auteurs has undergone several alterations, criticism, and changes from its outset. On the whole, it consists in sustaining the director’s position as the film author, and his activity as a form of creative self-expression.

Abstract:

This paper aims to conduct a historical and conceptual review of authorship in television production, taking auteur theory applied to the television media as a reference. For this purpose, the qualitative methodology has been used to carry out a bibliographic and documentary analysis of the author concept in the film and television industry. Despite the collaborative nature of television production, the results obtained suggest the importance of the TV series executive producer’s individual authorship during this process, who is also known as the showrunner”. They are ultimately responsible for the project’s production, applying a creative and personal style to their entire work. The authorship, influenced by the television channel and the audience, promotes the consideration of fiction TV series as a quality cultural product, which affects its promotional strategies.

Keywords:

Authorship; showrunner; TV series; auteur theory; collaborative process.

Resumen:

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo realizar una revisión histó-rica y conceptual de la autoría en la producción televisiva, tomando como referente la Politique des Auteurs francesa aplicada a la tele-visión estadounidense. Con dicha finalidad, desde una metodología cualitativa, se lleva a cabo un análisis bibliográfico y documental del concepto de autor en la industria del cine y la televisión. Pese al carác-ter colaborativo del proceso de producción televisiva, los resultados revelan la significación en éste de una autoría individual: el produc-tor ejecutivo de series de ficción televisiva, conocido con el término de showrunner’. Estamos ante el máximo responsable de la producción del proyecto, que aplica un estilo creativo personal en el conjunto de su obra audiovisual. Dicha autoría, influenciada por la cadena de televisión y los espectadores, promueve la consideración de las series de ficción como un producto cultural de calidad e influye en las estra-tegias de promoción del mismo.

Palabras clave:

Authorship; showrunner; TV series; auteur theory; collaborative process.

Received: 20/12/2018 Accepted: 28/04/2019

Recibido: 20/12/2018 Aceptado: 28/04/2019

Jordi Alberich-Pascual is a Senior Lecturer in Audiovisual Communication and Advertising in the Information and Communication Department of the University of Granada. He has developed his research activity as an expert in aesthetic and communication in new media. He is currently principal investigator of the research group “CommuniCAV” (PAI SEJ-585), and the research project of excellence “Transmedialización y crowdsourcing en las narrativas de ficción y no ficción audiovisuales, periodísticas, dramáticas y literarias” (Ref. CSO2017-85965-P). He is author and co-author of several books, such as, Previously On. Interdisciplinary studies on TV series in the Third Golden Age of Television (2011) or Exploraciones creativas. Prácticas artísticas y culturales de los nuevos medios (2010), among others.

Universidad of Granada, Spain

[email protected]

ORCID: 0000-0001-6871-4614