Narrowcasting and the WB

*I misread the prompt and thought we were supposed to write about Tuesday's readings. Instead of deleting this, I'm just going to write another one that will count as my assignment*

The WB's targeting of teens and the like could be considered the beginnings of modern narrowcasting approaches. Whereas beforehand the goal was to reach as wide an audience as possible and thereby making your programs as accessible as possible, the WB's approach was to create specific programing that may not have appealed to everyone, but certainly appealed to teens. Wee points out in her article that not only did their share of the teenage market increase, but their share of a much wider market ranging from 18-49 year olds increased as well.

At first this result may sound counterintuitive, but I believe it's an important note about narrowcasting and story telling in general. In most cases, I find that the wider you try to cast your metaphorical net while storytelling, the lower the quality of the produced narrative. This is because the more people you try to include, the farther you get from really connecting with any individual. If a story about kids spends half it's time viewing the world from the adults perspective to give the adults something to latch onto, you take away from the connection kids are making to the narrative and emotional arc of the story as a whole and vice versa. By trying to tell a story from one general outlook, you can make a more consistent and compelling narrative, that will in fact appeal to more than simply those perspectives represented in the story. Today, it is easy to see this line of thinking in action, with so many different and focused genres appealing directly to specific audiences. Yet it's also clear to see that the lines of who these audience members is blurred simply because many people just enjoy quality programming.